A Return to Travel – Zermatt

By chensiyuan - chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0, Source

One of the first places I traveled to outside the United States was Switzerland, and I was fascinated with the diverse landscape and climate of such a small country – skiing and sunning by the lake, all in one place on Lake Lausanne!  But my first trip was a brief one, and I made only subsequent brief trips for business over the following years as well.  One of my travel goals was to go back, but for a real vacation where I could linger and savor more of one of the most unique countries in the world.

In 2019, my husband and I traveled to Switzerland on holiday, including to larger cities and smaller towns.  But one of our favorite places was Zermatt, a locale of less than 6,000 people, better known as a mountaineering and skiing destination high among the Swiss Alps, and nestled at the base of the Matterhorn.  I’m not much of a skier, and we visited the area in summertime, but it was perhaps even more beautiful then.  In the village of Zermatt the weather was warm, with flowers blooming and lots of summer tourists there for the hiking season. Plus, it was lovely to eat outside and enjoy Swiss wines, many of which are not easily imported to the US and come from small, lesser-known wineries.

But take the “Matterhorn Express” up the mountains and high above Zermatt, and it’s a different story – snow all over the alps and chilly, even cold during the daytime despite the sun being bright.  High in the mountains, you can choose from a number of longer or shorter hikes, or you can do as we did and just enjoy fondue and hot cocoa on one of the patios at a restaurant in the clouds.

Down the mountain in Zermatt, we stayed at the Omnia, a hotel integrated beautifully into the rocky hillside, and that could easily be a lair for villains in a James Bond film.  Don’t believe me?  Just check out the website: https://www.the-omnia.com/en/hotel/  The food, the rooms, the spa and everything else were amazing.  Just dreaming of a return in the post-COVID world . . . 

Laura Flippin | Wheels Up