We end a river cruise on March 23 in Basel. Rather than flying straight home, we'd like to finally see the one part of Switzerland we missed last time: Zermatt and the Matterhorn. I'm kinda worried about the weather. Does anyone have any insight on what we can expect? I see all sorts of numbers and graphs, but they don't tell me much. We don't ski, just want to go up the Gornergrat railway or the Matterhorn Glacier railway.
Posted by
Bay Area SF & Uppsala Sweden 🇸🇪
1988 posts
March in the Alps is really variable in March - Could be beautiful, could have zero visibility. I've skied at the Matterhorn in both conditions. Other options like Munich or Salzburg for some city enjoyment, less chance of disappointment.
Posted by
Bend, OR
2198 posts
Sorry but it’s just one of those places that’s not predictable.
Posted by
Switzerland
513 posts
Perhaps you have come across this article, it gives a good description of what you might find
https://discoverzermatt.com/zermatt-in-march/
Are you able to stay for a few days? This gives you a better chance at some good weather, but for sure no guarantee. Zermatt itself is a very nice village...but of course you want to see the mountains as well, especially the Matterhorn, and that is really impossible to predict.
Posted by
550 posts
The cost of geting from Basel to Zermatt is quite high if you are gambling on the weather, and hotels are not cheap either - once you are there you have no alternative. I would suggest you go to Spiez and make the Gornergrat ride a daytrip from there if the weather is clear. And if it isn't you have alternatives in the Berner Oberland or a ride on the Golden Pass Express to Montreux. Having access to webcams whilst there will be important - and make sure they show current date and not archive pictures.
Spiez isn't "A list" tourism but the lower town area near the castle is nice and there are very good views (just stepping out of the station gives an Instagram moment). It has easy trains from Basel and the big selling point in this case is that the railway then splits in three directions, west, east ,south - perfect for chasing the best weather
Swiss weather service https://www.meteoswiss.admin.ch/#tab=forecast-map
Gornergrat webcam https://zermatt.roundshot.com/gornergrat/#/video
Grindelwald webcam https://kirchbuehl.roundshot.com/#/
Chateaux D'Oex (above Montruex) webcam https://www.bergfex.com/sommer/chateau-d-oex/webcams/c7543/
Posted by
26 posts
Definitely no guarantee , but if you stay multiple nights you increase your chances of a clear day when the matterhorn is visible. The more nights , the better the chances. You can also google historical weather figures by month to get an idea.