Is Zermatt worth the costs$$?

Grizwald wrote:Hello there,
Let's rule out France because the schools will still be holidaying the first week of March, and although some resorts have good après the prices are generally punitive. This leave Austria, but better sliding Kitzbuhel or maybe Saalbach.

Something wrong with Italy? The Dolomites?

zermatt is a place I keep reading about. They tell me its somewhere to ski before you die, and I do think skiing in the shadow of the Matterhorn would be a little bit special.
However, heres what I've pieced together about the place thus far:

* Holidays to stay in Zermatt are expensive, I'm not so sure its particularly expensive once you're there, but where isn't these days?

* It appears to take forever to get out of the resort and up to the slopes, irrespective of which lift you take. I've heard about horror lift queues of over an hour in the mornings.

* its very high and therefore snowsure, so a good place to go late season

* it apparently has some of the best mountain restaurants there are. However, this is not something that floats my boat, as lunch on the mountain for me is simply time not skiing.

* Its a long transfer some all the airports, with the possible exception of Sion, where flights are very limited and not particularly cheap either.

* if you want to ski Zermatt, the better and cheaper option seems to be stay in Cervinia on the Italian side.

Its a place I would go to if the right deal came along, but not somewhere I'm going out of my way to ski at.

From my personal experience of places where theres stuff going on, combined with a good range of skiing to be had, you can't do worse than consider the following:

Mayrhofen - Austria
Verbier - Switzerland
Sauze d'Oulx - Italy
St Anton - Austria

If you're particularly after nightlife combined with good skiing, you might also want to consider Ischgl and Solden as places to go. Neither of them are particularly cheap in terms of holiday prices though.

Thanks all, for the great advice. Grizwald, I would say that I am right at the intermediate/advanced cut off, have been riding for several years, comfortable switch and on all terrain, enjoy the challenge of off-piste riding. I think I will go for it in Zermatt, cost is not a game changer (as it is my only vacation this year from a tour of duty in AFG!), just wanted to make sure it was not a complete tourist trap with everything being overpriced for the sake of luxury and status. I look forward to discovering this evolved village, and am now looking for the best situation on lodging.

Thanks again!

jastem wrote:I don't think we saw a snowboarder the whole week we were there - although surely there must be snowboarders there?

You see, there's one plus point already ;)

For snowboarding singles in 30's and nightlife Verbier is much better option!

Iceman wrote:

jastem wrote:I don't think we saw a snowboarder the whole week we were there - although surely there must be snowboarders there?

You see, there's one plus point already ;)

There is definitely 1 resident snowboarder there, he's a member here and I know him. He was probably off piste somewhere. It's a big resort!

I guess I have, many times expressed the view that if your life is bound up in snowsports, Colorado and Zermatt maybe should be on you horizon. Until you see the Matterhorn, you will be unable to imagine the visual effect. I have been several times, and can still recall every time, on the train, that the Matterhorn came into view.

The slopes are quite varied. As Bandit says, one of the better J2ski boarders has elected to live there. I have financed a boarder to stay in Zermatt, and she thought it was good boarding country.

I did not take the view that Zermatt was expensive. For such a resort, you might expect to pay around £600 hb. The day costs are much lower than France, and a little more than Austria.

Dave Mac wrote:The day costs are much lower than France, and a little more than Austria.

Sweeping statement if ever I heard one.

France:

Courcheval - cup of coffee reportedly someone paid £20 on the slopes
Val Thorens - Iceman paid £11 for a bowl of soup recently
My experience in Alpe d'Huez and Serre Che - beer 3.50, large delicious home baked pizza 13 euros, coffee 2.40.

How much lower than those prices is Zermatt exactly?