Please sign in to post.

Switzerland - Zermatt and/or Jungfrau Region

Posted by on

I’ll be travelling with my husband and two kids (kids 10 & 12) in mid April and want to experience the Swiss Alps. We will be coming from Stuttgart via train and only have 4 nights in Switzerland.

We really want to go to Zermatt and see the Matterhorn, enjoy the village atmosphere and do some sledding. We do ski, but that’s not the focus this trip as we’re heading onto coastal areas of Italy and Spain and are not packing the ski gear.

We are also interested in the Jungfrau Region and thought we could stay at Wengen, head up Schilthorn and see the different scenery that’s in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Would there still be snow in the village in Wengen in mid April? Could we still do sledging in Wengen at this time or is it better to do it at Zermatt? Is the sledding even worth it, we’ve never done it before, but it looked like a bit of fun!

The other consideration is that the Zermatt Unplugged music festival would be on in Zermatt during the time we would be there and we’re not sure if this is a good or bad thing and if it will make Zermatt very busy or impact what we can do.

I guess my main question is….should we do 2 nights at each (Zermatt and Wengen) which would really only give us one full day at each location…..or should we choose one out of the two and spend 4 nights in the one spot? And if so, which one and why?

We’ve only been to Lucerne and Zurich before in Switzerland so we really want to experience the Swiss alps. We love the outdoors and exploring and are very fit and active as a family.

Thank you for your advice.

Posted by
1455 posts

I would do all 4 nights in either Wengen or Zermatt rather than trying to do both. Packing everyone/thing up and treking to the next place eats up valuable time which could be spent outside doing stuff in the mountains. My preference is the Jungfrau area because there's more to do there than in Zermatt if the weather is mean to you.

At Wengen's elevation, snow in April is a still a possibility but it would not likely be a days-long event.

Posted by
21598 posts

I think the sledding season is pretty much done by mid April, certainly in Wengen and most likely in Zermatt (Gornergrat). Skiing is available year round on the glacier above Trockner Steg.

Posted by
2388 posts

I agree with FastEddie about choosing one location as they're separated by an 8-hour train ride.
Having been to both Zermatt and the Berner Oberland, I 'd pick Wengen. There is more to do in the area, with a lot of lower-elevation hikes you can do in addition to the Lauterbrunnen Valley. And, there are options in case of inclement weather which are lacking in Zermatt.

Posted by
11879 posts

I concur with the idea to stay in one or the other and also agree that there is more to do in the greater Lauterbrunnen area.

You said

...thought we could stay at Wengen, head up Schilthorn

Wengen is on the Jungfrau side of the valley; Mürren is the village closest to the Schilthorn. It doesn't really matter which you stay in as you can easily get around to all three villages but maybe you want to be on the Schilthorn side specifically?

Posted by
2 posts

Thank you, appreciate all your advice so far. Just to clarify…you say the two locations are 8hrs by train apart? Unless I am looking incorrectly, the SSB website says it’s 3hrs by train from Wengen to Zermatt which I thought was ok. We could be at Zermatt mid- morning and ready to explore. We would then leave Zermatt on the train and head to Milan.

Add Reply

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.