Zermatt, Switzerland and the Matterhorn: Living out #4 of my Bucket List

Posted in Dreaming, Switzerland, Uncategorized on April 26, 2009

This is the fifth part of a series of posts in which I am sharing pictures and thoughts from my first major trip with children. In 2005, my husband and I headed to Europe with our 10mo son. We had a computer hard drive disaster and I thought that I had lost all of these photos. I was so thrilled to come across a CD with them; I wanted to share these first travel adventures with our little guy. You can read the first four posts here: Trier, Germany; Kelty Convertible Backpack; American Cemetery and Memorial; and Amsterdam, Netherlands.


When we were planning our trip to Europe, my dad (with whom we would be staying for part of the trip) asked me if there was anywhere else I really wanted to see but didn’t think we could do it. We had already packed this trip full, but I decided to mention the fact that #4 on my Bucket List was to see the Matterhorn. I have always been fascinated with the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland and I had taught a great book called Banner in the Sky to my 7th grade class. It is about a teenage boy and his rite of passage into becoming a man. He loses his father to a mountain climbing accident and then gets to climb that same mountain. The mountain and town are loosely based on the Matterhorn and Zermatt, Switzerland. Some of you may remember an old Disney movie titled Third Man on the Mountain. That movie is based on the book. This story only cemented that need to see the Matterhorn.

Imagine my excitement when we were able to add a trip to Zermatt in to our itinerary! Zermatt is this neat little town at the foot of the Matterhorn. There are no cars allowed, so you park at the bottom and take a tram up the mountain. When you arrive, there are these little cars that pick you up and take you where you want to go.



We stayed at a wonderful hotel called the Park Hotel-Beausite. This is quite possibly the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in! The rooms were spacious and beautiful. Although this was a very ritzy, expensive hotel, they welcomed my 10mo son with open arms. They had a beautiful crib put in the room. It was made of the same light wood that all of the furnishings were made of. This may seem trivial but the thing I loved about it was that it made us feel posh even though we were traveling with our little guy. The dinner included was sinful and it was where we tried some of our most exotic foods.


While in Zermatt, we took a ride in the tram up to the mountain so we could get the perfect view of the Matterhorn. We had wine in the Glacier Paradise, the ice bar carved out in a section of the glacier. We even bought a bottle of Matterhorn wine to bring home with us. They make the wine and store it the glacier! My husband got to ski the mountain in the middle of June.





Luckily, we were traveling with family because Big S was too little for the ride up the mountain. Because of the elevation, he could not go. My stepmom kept him while my dad, Daddy J and I made the trek. If you are planning a trip, be sure to check the age limits to make sure your children can go. If my stepmom had not been able to take him, the hotel did offer a babysitting service that we could have looked into using.

I am glad that we added this trip to our itinerary at the last moment. If you can’t go, check out these live webcams of the mountain. It is gorgeous!

4 Responses to “Zermatt, Switzerland and the Matterhorn: Living out #4 of my Bucket List”

  1. 1
    Mara from Motherofalltrips says:
    April 26, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    Love everything about this story – the fact that you were realizing a dream, that you went for it even if it didn’t seem like the kind of things that you’d typically do with a baby, and the fact that you brought help. I agree with your travel-with-kids philosophy 100 percent. The photos are great too

  2. 2
    kidsgowest says:
    April 26, 2009 at 8:53 pm

    Like Mara said, I loved that you got to do something on your dream list. And that it didn’t disappoint. Those pictures are beautiful.

  3. 3
    Amie OS says:
    April 27, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    Zermatt is one of our favorite places on the planet … we want to get back there now that our son is old enough to hike. Great photos!

  4. 4
    Two Kids and a Map » The London Eye - London, England says:
    July 2, 2009 at 8:30 am

    [...] Germany; Kelty Convertible Backpack; American Cemetery and Memorial; Amsterdam, Netherlands;  Zermatt, Switzerland and the Matterhorn, Brussels, Belgium, and Stuck in [...]

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  1. Two Kids and a Map » The London Eye - London, England says:
    July 2, 2009 at 8:30 am

    [...] Germany; Kelty Convertible Backpack; American Cemetery and Memorial; Amsterdam, Netherlands;  Zermatt, Switzerland and the Matterhorn, Brussels, Belgium, and Stuck in [...]


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