Since visiting Zermatt last summer, it has become one of my favorite destinations I've traveled to. I fell in love with this beautiful mountain resort town from the moment we took the train to it from Geneva.

Some simple, but stunning views on the train ride into Zermatt!

Once we arrived at the main station, our pre-arranged ride from our hotel was there to pick us up. We chose to stay at Hotel Aristella Swissflair, and we enjoyed our two night stay immensely. They're a small family run hotel, and we loved our Panorama Double Room with a view of the Matterhorn. :)


View from our room

While we chose to stay in a room with a view of the Matterhorn, you don't need to book this type of room, as you can pretty much see Matterhorn from anywhere in the town! I have so many pictures of this mountain now 😂

Some yummy bites from Zermatt Kitchen! 
We went back twice afterwards for coffee =)

Since we arrived in Zermatt later in the afternoon, we grabbed some food at Zermatt Kitchen downstairs and tucked in early so we could catch the famous Matterhorn sunrise the next day!

First sunrise

Video version

The cool thing about catching the sunrise of the Matterhorn, is the weather app on your iPhone tells you exactly when to catch it. We woke up around 5am to catch the famous Golden Sunrise. 


 This is also a well-known common fact, but the mountain on Toblerone depicts the Matterhorn :)

View point video from Gonergrat station

After watching the sunrise, we booked it to the Gornergrat Bahn to catch the first train up to Gornergrat. The Railway is located across the street from the Zermatt main train station. At Gornergrat, you can see the Gorner Glacier, Matterhorn, and 29 peaks all 4,000 metres in height.  It also hosts the Kulm hotel, the highest hotel in the Swiss Alps!

Hiking down to Riffelsee from Gornergrat

Next, we hiked down to Riffelsee. It was a short, easy downhill hike, around 2km. If you're worried about getting lost, there were clear signs that point you to the right direction. You can also follow the crowd, all who were heading to the lake!

Matterhorn Reflection at Riffelsee

I remember it being a perfect summer day with the air being super clear and the views all around gorgeous! We could see the reflection of the Matterhorn in Riffelsee, shown in the video above.


From Riffelsee, we hiked down to Riffelberg station. There were two trail options and we opted for the shorter trail. At the station, there is a rest stop and restaurant. We ate our first meal of the day there. The restaurant served Swiss food and had live music playing outside! We took the train back down later to the Main Station and spent the rest of the day exploring the town.







We finished up our day by trying Swiss fondue at Restaurante Pinte! I highly recommend making a reservation at any restaurant you want to try in Zermatt, as it was quite packed and busy at most places. 

Trying fondue at Pinte

To conclude, there was one thing that stood out to me the most in Zermatt. It wasn't mentioned in any of the travel guides I read before going. Zermatt has a river called the Matter Vispa that runs through the town. The river flows from the Glaciers and was visibly loud and running strong all times. It provided a coolness to the town, which was amazing to experience after encountering the heat wave in Italy. It was a truly neat & unique experience that I won't forget! 😌