Zermatt

Forget road trip. You can come to Zermatt only by train.

Are you saying you have a car? You can park it in the lot at Taesch station and take the 12 minute ride up to Zermatt. But there is really no other place to view the Matterhorn than Zermatt. The valleys are very deep. you will only see it when you pull into the town.

You can drive as far as Tasch and take the train from there to Zermatt, but that takes longer than to just take the train from Thun, if that's where you would be getting the train. 2 hrs is not that bad for a day trip if the weather is good and you really want to see the Matterhorn. You'd have enough time to explore Zermatt and take a nice hike/walk around the area or take the incline railway up the Gornergrat for great views of the Matterhorn and the area around Zermatt. Only you can say whether that's worth it to you.

I grew up near Disneyland in the proverbial shadow of the "Matterhorn "and joked about going to Switzerland to see the real thing.
Well, my travel buddy that year really wanted to see it, so we spent a couple of days around the first of July in Zermatt. And we loved it! After the hustle and bustle of travel, it was lovely to have a few days in a car-free village. There is a small museum dedicated to the original climbers of the mountain, and that was really interesting -- someone's "hiking shoes" which looked like ordinary dress shoes and someone else's actual rope (which broke and he died on the mountain.) Compared to climbing gear these days, people were dressed for an afternoon stroll.
The clouds cleared off on our last day and we had beautiful views of the Matterhorn from a short, maybe 40 minute, hike out of town.
I would recommend going to Zermatt.

Zermatt is worth the overnight stay.. and then if able it is so worth going up and seeing Mont Blanc etc..

I would not consider it a daytrip.. and yes..weather is unpredictable.. all the more reason to give it more then a few hours.. at least an overnight.. but then I suppose you are rushing through 5 countries in two weeks right?

@Pat: I am afraid you cannot see Mt.Blanc from Zermatt.

Sorry meant Mt Rosa.. you take the rail car up to the Gornergrat observation point.. you can see right into Italy !

Thx to all who gave suggestions. Happily we are in switzerland for 3 wks. We have decided to risk the weather and stay 2 nites in zermatt. Hopefullt it will be clear.

Its lovely .. you will love it.. Do take the hike up to the hut if weather is decent. ( this assumes you are not mobility impaired.. I did it at 36, my dad was 65.. and on our way up we saw this little old white hair lady( seriously she must have been at least 75) .. coming down ( and we had left first thing in am !!) she had already made it to the hut and was on way back down.. She was a local who said she did it everyday !! Those Swiss are fit! ( do not walk all the way down..I did , dad took cable car.. I could not walk the next day..lol.. going down is way harder and took me a few hours.. maybe 3!

I highly recommend trying out the huts near Zermatt:

http://www.zermatt.ch/en/climbing/Mountain-huts

Some are just a 45-60 minute walk from downtown and some are a little more.

Check out the Schwarzee Hut. It is at the top of the cable car from Zermatt heading to the Matterhorn. This is the same route I would use if I was climbing the Matterhorn except the Schwarzsee Hut, overlooking the little Schwarzsee, is about 5 minutes or less from the cable car station ;)

If you can, stay at Hotel Le Mazot, Zermatt. Third floor room with view from our window of the Matterhorn. Early September 2014, the summer when "summer" did not arrive in Switzerland yet the Matterhorn came out from hiding for the three nights we were there. I wish you such an experience. Gornergraut, for sure! Snowed on us first night but were able to hike down from there to Zermatt. I made it at age 65, with my hiking poles. Stiff knees the next day but totally worth it. And yes, stop at all huttes!