Zermatt in 2 days, on foot

This 2-day self-guided walking plan for Zermatt covers 13 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 2 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Zermatt rewards a detour.

The Zermatt route at a glance

Day 1

Day 1 covers 7 stops over about 3.4 km as the crow flies, from Gorner Gorge to Sunnegga and Leisee. ≈ 3.4 km between stops, straight line

Morning

1. Gorner Gorge: A deep cleft of green serpentine rock at the edge of Zermatt, where wooden walkways cling to the cliffs above a rushing glacier river; a summer-season walk opened to visitors in the 1880s. 1.3 km to the next stop
2. Mountaineers' Cemetery: A quiet garden of graves beside the village church, where climbers who died in the mountains around Zermatt are remembered, among them members of the 1865 Matterhorn expedition. 0 km to the next stop
3. St. Mauritius Church: Zermatt's parish church on the central Kirchplatz, consecrated in 1916, with gilded Baroque altars and a Noah's Ark ceiling; the nearby church bridge frames the classic Matterhorn view. 0 km to the next stop
4. Matterhorn Museum (Zermatlantis): An underground museum beneath a glass pyramid in the village centre, recreating old Zermatt around a square and telling the story of the 1865 first ascent, including the broken rope. 0.1 km to the next stop

Afternoon

1. Bahnhofstrasse: Zermatt's car-free main street, running from the station toward the church, lined with hotels, watch and souvenir shops, and crossed by silent electric taxis, horse carriages and summer goats. 0.2 km to the next stop
2. Hinterdorf (Old Village): Zermatt's old village core: a huddle of black larch-timber barns and granaries, many raised on stone discs against mice, that recall the farming settlement the resort grew from. 1.8 km to the next stop
3. Sunnegga and Leisee: A sunny mountain terrace above Zermatt, reached by an underground funicular, with the little Leisee lake that mirrors the Matterhorn and a lakeside beach and playground for families.

Day 2

Day 2 covers 6 stops over about 20 km as the crow flies, from Findeln to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. ≈ 20 km between stops, straight line

Morning

1. Findeln: A scattered hamlet of old blackened-larch Walser barns and a 17th-century chapel on the sunny slopes above Zermatt, famous for its Matterhorn view and its mountain restaurants. 3.4 km to the next stop
2. Gornergrat Railway: A cog railway, the highest open-air railway in Europe, that climbs from Zermatt to the Gornergrat ridge at 3,089 metres, opening a panorama of twenty-nine 4,000-metre peaks and the Gorner Glacier. 1.5 km to the next stop
3. Riffelsee: A tiny alpine lake near Rotenboden on the Gornergrat line, famous across Switzerland for the mirror reflection of the Matterhorn in its still water at sunrise. 4.4 km to the next stop

Afternoon

1. Schwarzsee: A small dark lake at 2,552 metres below the Matterhorn, with the little white chapel of Maria zum Schnee mirrored in its water, at the start of the Hörnli route up the peak. 4.1 km to the next stop
2. The Matterhorn: The great rock pyramid above Zermatt, 4,478 metres high and the symbol of Switzerland, first climbed in 1865 in a triumph that ended in tragedy on the descent. 6.9 km to the next stop
3. Matterhorn Glacier Paradise: The highest cable-car destination in Europe, on the Klein Matterhorn at 3,883 metres, with a viewing platform over a sea of peaks and glaciers and an ice palace carved into the glacier.

Distances are straight-line between stops; streets add a little.

Updated: October 10, 2026

Full Zermatt guide and all stops →