RS Switzerland tour itinerary question

Zermatt is not on the itinerary for 2026 Best of Switzerland tour, so it does not stop there. It is about a 1 hour bus ride each way off the route you appear to be taking. The Matterhorn can often be socked in, so making a 2 hour detour is iffy, thus it appears to have been dropped from the itinerary.

Hi Sam,

You are right that it used to be on the itinerary. It occurred to me to try using the wayback machine to see if itineraries from past years were available, and indeed, they do show a stop in Zermatt and a photo of the Matterhorn; I'm guessing that either a) too many trips had the mountain covered in clouds, and thus disappointing tour participants, or b) they decided that the time was better used elsewhere. Interestingly, the trip from Lugano to Lausanne, which is currently listed as a 5 hour bus ride, was listed as only 5.5 hours when it included the stop in Zermatt; I am guessing that the bus trip now includes a different stop.

Anyway, thanks for your time.

I was on this tour in September 2025. We stopped in Zermatt and the weather didn’t cooperate for us to see anything more than the base of the Matterhorn. And it was a detour en route on a long travel day from Lugano to Lausanne.

Starting in 2026, the tour skips Zermatt. Our guide told us that Zermatt had been a bone of contention between the guides and the planning office for years precisely because it was so hit-or-miss and weather dependent. The guides hated bringing people there and then being disappointed when the main attraction wasn’t visible.

Thanks, Cindy. This confirms my guesses.

I was on the tour in June 2025.
The day we were meant to spend a short visit to Zermatt was the day a huge rairfall flooded the town. The guide made alternate plans.
I suspect the Zermatt stop was taken off the itinerary because it was too often disappointing.

We are taking the tour this year, and before booking I emailed the office to ask the exact question. “We decided to remove the stop in Zermatt. While this was a great stop when the weather was good, it was not so enjoyable when the weather didn’t cooperate. We didn’t spend much time in Zermatt and it added a little extra driving that day. So we decided to bypass Zermatt in 2026 so we can arrive in Lausanne a little earlier.”

This experience of Zermatt being a great destination but only in good weather reminds me of the RS plan to stop at the Zugspitze during the Alps My Way tour. It was cloudy with no visibility in 2024 so guide made an alternate stop. The right call for sure because it was going to be pricey for my family of 5 to take the cable car up there only to not see anything. So, we were hopeful to see it during our same Alps My Way trip in June of 2025 with our same 5 adults. Nope. Socked in. Clouds. So to the bridge we went. Again. bleh. It was interesting the first year but ho hum the second time and we were disappointed not to experience the Zugspitze. I would venture a guess that it, too, is a conflict among guides and the office.

Such times are when we rely on our promise to ourselves and each other in our travel party that we will 'hold our plans loosely' so that such schedule changes won't make us too unhappy. :)

We were so lucky on the next to last "Best of Switzerland" tour of 2025. A sliver of the Matterhorn was obscured by clouds but otherwise brilliantly observable. We had really good visibility at all of the best scenery and a few light rains mostly reserved for city visit days.