Zermatt

Zermatt lives in the shadow of the Matterhorn, the most recognisable mountain on earth, and it has built an entire town around the view. Car-free by law — you arrive by train and get around on foot, by electric buggy or by an extraordinary network of lifts — it is polished, postcard-perfect Switzerland at its most iconic, sitting at 1,620m at the head of a dead-end valley ringed by 4,000m peaks.

It is a serious mountain town beneath the gloss. Winter skiing is vast and high, linking across the border to Cervinia in Italy, with glacier runs open almost year-round. Summer opens up world-class hiking beneath the Matterhorn, the finish of the Chamonix–Zermatt Haute Route, and high trails and huts among the greatest concentration of high peaks in the Alps. The Gornergrat railway and countless cable cars make the high mountains astonishingly accessible.

The price of all this is, well, the price. Zermatt is among the most expensive resorts in the Alps, and the honeypot viewpoints are busy. But for sheer iconic mountain grandeur and effortless access to the high Alps, it is hard to top.

Winter (late November to April) for extensive, high, reliable skiing, plus year-round glacier runs. Summer (late June to September) for hiking beneath the Matterhorn and the high trails and huts. The shoulder seasons are quieter but with more lifts closed. Being high and glaciated, the mountains here are serious — plan accordingly and consider a guide for anything on ice.

Zermatt is car-free: you drive or take the train to Täsch and transfer by the frequent shuttle train for the final few kilometres, or take the train all the way from Zurich or Geneva (around three and a half hours) via the Swiss rail network. Once there, everything is on foot or via the electric buggies and the vast lift system.