Experience the best of Zermatt

Zermatt lies at the head of the Mattertal valley in the Swiss canton of Valais, with the Matterhorn, a 4,478-metre pyramid of rock, rising above the village. Petrol cars are banned in the village, so electric taxis and horse-drawn carriages move along the main street, and visitors arrive by train, leaving their cars at Täsch. Old wooden barns on stilts stand among the modern chalets in the Hinterdorf, and the Matterhorn Museum recounts the first ascent in 1865, when four climbers died on the descent.

The Gornergrat cog railway, opened in 1898, climbs to a ridge with views of Monte Rosa and the Gorner Glacier, and cable cars rise to the Klein Matterhorn, a high glacier station with a panoramic terrace. In summer, trails lead to Riffelsee, a lake that mirrors the Matterhorn, and across high pastures. In winter the slopes link with Cervinia in Italy.

Cheese is the speciality: raclette scraped from a melted half-wheel onto potatoes, fondue, and the rye bread and dried meat of the Valais. The ski season runs from December to April, hiking from June to September, and larches turn gold in October, and white Fendant wine from the Rhône valley goes with all of it.