Is The Matterhorn Glacier Paradise in Zermatt Worth It?

If you’ve started planning your trip to Zermatt, Switzerland, you’ve probably realized by now that things are expensive!

Switzerland is known for being one of the most expensive countries in Europe, and as a tiny ski town, Zermatt is no exception.

So when it comes to deciding on activities, money can be a big factor in choosing what you do!

The Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, the tallest mountain viewing platform in Europe, is one of the top activities to do in Zermatt! But is it worth the CHF 120 cost??

In my opinion, it is worth it, but with some caveats! After visiting Zermatt for 3 days in December and spending one of those days experiencing the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, I have lots of thoughts on whether or not you should spend the money here.

This guide will cover everything you need to know before visiting the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, including pricing, ticket info, logistics, and what to expect!

What is the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise?

The Matterhorn Glacier Paradise is a mountain peak and cable car station just outside of Zermatt, Switzerland.

At 3,883 meters (12,740 feet), it’s the highest cable car station in Europe! (Even higher than the famous Jungfraujoch in the Bernese Oberland).

To get to the top station, you’ll ride a series of cable cars and gondolas from the town of Zermatt up to the peak station, where the views along the way are absolutely mind-blowing. The journey to the top takes just under an hour.

At the top, there is an outdoor 360º viewing platform with sprawling views of 38 peaks and 14 glaciers across three countries: Switzerland, Italy, and France.

In addition to the views, the summit complex includes the Glacier Palace (an ice cave carved into the glacier), a cinema, a restaurant, and a gift shop. It’s also the starting point for skiing on the glacier, and it’s open year-round, so you can visit in both summer and winter!

How Much Does the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise Cost?

A standalone ticket to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise starts at CHF 120 per adult. Prices change by date and season, so the earlier you book, the better rate you’ll usually get.

Your ticket includes:

• The round-trip gondola rides (you can hop off at stops along the way)
• Entry to the Glacier Palace, Cinema Lounge, and viewing platform
• The local Zermatt bus

I personally prefer booking tickets through GetYourGuide since they have a very flexible cancellation policy (cancel for free up to 24 hours before).

This is especially helpful if you are trying to plan your trip around the weather! For the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, you’ll want to visit on the clearest day of your trip, so having that flexibility is key.

And often times, the GetYourGuide ticket is actually cheaper than if you purchase through the main website!

Thankfully, there are some ways to save on tickets for the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise!

If you purchased the Swiss Travel Pass or Swiss Half Fare card for your trip, you can get 50% off your ticket for Matterhorn Glacier Paradise.

In addition, there’s also the Peak2Peak ticket, which combines the Glacier Paradise and the Gornergrat train in one day. The cost of this ticket starts at CHF 165 in the winter, which is cheaper than if you were to buy both separately.

I’ll share my thoughts on visiting Gornergrat vs Glacier Paradise later in this post.

Lastly, kids under 9 are able to visit Matterhorn Glacier Paradise free of charge, and children 9-15 are half-price!

Standalone Ticket vs. Ski Pass

If you’re planning to ski at all on your trip, you can also save money on your ticket to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise.

For whatever reason, a one-day Zermatt ski pass is cheaper than the standalone Glacier Paradise ticket, even though it covers all three ski areas (Sunnegga-Rothorn, Gornergrat, and Matterhorn Glacier Paradise).

Day ski passes start at around CHF 90, compared to CHF 120+ for the Glacier Paradise ticket alone.

So if you’re a skier, you might consider visiting the Glacier Paradise and Gornergrat areas while skiing to take advantage of the savings.

On our trip, we only wanted to ski one day, so we chose to use our ski pass for visiting/skiing at the Sunnegga-Rothorn and Gornergrat areas.

Then, we did the Glacier Paradise on a non-ski day, so we bought the standalone ticket.

You can read more about ski passes and the different ski areas in my Zermatt Skiing Guide here! ⛷️

How to Get to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise

Starting Location in Zermatt

Your journey to the top of the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise starts in the town of Zermatt!

Specifically, the valley station is called the Zermatt Matterhorn Talstation and is located just south of the town center.

During our trip, we stayed at Hotel Jagerhof (also on the south side), so we were able to walk the 10 minutes to the station easily (which was a beautiful walk, I might add!).

However, if you are staying closer to the center of town, you can also hop on the free Zermatt e-bus. Both the green and red lines make a stop in front of the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise station.

➡️ Pssst: Read my guide on Where to Stay in Zermatt for more hotel recommendations!

Once you arrive at the station, you can buy or pick up your tickets. If you purchase through GetYourGuide, you will need to exchange your voucher for the tickets!

Zermatt → Furi → Schwarzsee

Once you’ve scanned your tickets and passed through the turnstile, you’ll board the first gondola, the Matterhorn Express, up to the Furi station. This is a smaller, 8-person gondola (that fit our group of 6 quite comfortably).

The views on this leg were something out of a Christmas fairytale, as we were whisked out of town through snow-crusted evergreen trees, with the village of Zermatt falling away in the distance.

After about 5 minutes, you’ll reach the Furi station. Here, you get out, walk a few minutes, and then board the Matterhorn Express gondola again to the Schwarzsee station.

There is also an option to bypass Schwarzsee and go straight from Furi to Trockener Steg. However, I don’t recommend this, as the stop at Schwarzsee offers a beautiful photo op of the Matterhorn!

Stop at Schwarzsee

After 10 minutes on the gondola from Furi, you’ll arrive at the Schwarzsee station. This leg might have been my favorite, as the journey takes you right to the foot of the Matterhorn!

It was so cool to see it off in the distance, getting bigger and bigger as the gondola whisks you up the mountain.

I highly recommend getting out of the gondola here and leaving the station. You’ll quickly see why, as there is a small viewing area right outside the gates where you can see the Matterhorn looming right in front of you.

We got very lucky when we visited, as the clouds decided to part to give us the perfect view!

We didn’t venture further than the station since it was snowing, but this area is a popular spot to get even closer to the Matterhorn. There is a fun “ZERMATT” sign down the hill, and in the summer months, a beautiful lake at the foot of the mountain.

We stayed here about 20 minutes taking photos and soaking in the views before continuing up the mountain!

Reaching the Summit

From Schwarzsee, there is one more quick stop at Trockener Steg station before you board the last leg up to the peak station!

The 3S cable car on this leg from Trockener Steg to the summit, called the Matterhorn Glacier Ride, was noticeably nicer and larger than the Matterhorn Express portion of the journey. Instead of sitting 8 people, it seats 28! Though our group of 6 had the entire thing to ourselves.

There’s even an upgraded version called the Crystal Ride, which has glass floors and thousands of Swarovski crystals inside. (We did not do this because it felt a little silly lol).

This leg is also where you gain the most elevation, going from 2,939 meters at Trockener Steg to 3,883 meters at the summit. That’s over 3,000 feet in elevation gain!

The views on this route were absolutely unreal, as you rise above the Matterhorn mountain and into the clouds!

What to Expect at the Top of Matterhorn Glacier Paradise

While the journey to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise is half the fun, there is plenty waiting for you at the top as well!

Thankfully, everything I’ll cover below is included in your ticket, so make sure to get your money’s worth!

Viewing Platform

The highlight of the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise is the outdoor 360º viewing platform at the summit! This is the highest point of the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, sitting at 3,883 meters above sea level.

And let me tell you – you can feel it at the top. As someone who is from sea level in Florida, I definitely felt a little lightheaded and extra winded at such a high elevation.

To reach the viewing platform, you’ll board a small elevator and then climb a set of metal stairs. As expected, the stairs can get very slippery, so make sure to wear proper snow boots!

P.S. Read my guide on What to Wear in Zermatt in Winter for all my outfit recommendations for staying warm! 🧣

Once at the top, on a clear day you can see 38 of the Alps’ 4,000-meter peaks and 14 glaciers spread across Switzerland, Italy, and France – so cool!!

It felt surreal being that high, even above the clouds, and being almost eye-level with the Matterhorn. We were lucky to visit on a mostly clear day, but I can see how the experience would be dampened if it were too cloudy.

Glacier Palace and Cinema Lounge

Back down on the main interior level, there is also a small cinema at the summit where you can watch short films about the history of the Matterhorn and the surrounding Alps.

But our favorite part was the Glacier Palace, which you can take a small elevator down to, 15 meters under the glacier itself!

Here, you’ll walk through a series of ice tunnels and ice caves that are carved into the glacier. We thought this was going to be cheesy, but it was actually soo cool!

There are tons of different ice sculptures throughout the tunnels that are regularly updated by local ice artists.

There’s also an ice slide (so fun) and an ice bar, though unfortunately the bar was closed when we visited!

While exploring the ice caves, you’ll also reach the border of Italy, marked by both the Swiss and Italian flags, carved into the glacier of course!

Lunch with a View

After experiencing all that the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise has to offer (or sometime in between), you may want a snack, a drink, or a full-blown meal.

Luckily, there is a restaurant inside the summit area that has everything from sandwiches to cheeseburgers to French fries.

They also had plenty of hot and cold drinks – half of our group got beers and the other half got hot chocolates! Haha. Beware of pouring a beer at that high of an altitude, by the way!

And of course, we had to buy a Toblerone chocolate bar, which famously includes the Matterhorn in its logo (in case you didn’t know!).

While the prices were high here (to be expected), we thoroughly enjoyed the break from the cold and the chance to catch our breath from the altitude!

There is a gift shop next to the restaurant, as well as bathrooms, which are free to use if you purchase something from the restaurant!

And just outside the restaurant, you can walk outside where the ski lifts are for more insane views! A snow angel felt necessary here.

Visiting Matterhorn Glacier Paradise in Summer vs Winter

I started this guide by saying I do think visiting the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise is worth it, with some caveats.

As you can tell by my photos, we visited Zermatt in the winter, so our entire experience at the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise felt like the inside of a snow globe.

We absolutely loved seeing the trees, the mountains, everything covered in snow (we got lucky and had a big snowstorm the day before we visited!).

However, after seeing photos from other people during the summer, I don’t think it’s quite the same experience.

Don’t get me wrong, the landscapes are still stunning, but as you get higher up, the mountains get very gray and bleak. They are sooo much prettier covered in snow!

If you’re visiting Zermatt in the warmer months and are looking for the beautiful green Swiss landscapes you might have seen on social media, I think you are better off visiting the Sunnegga or Gornergrat areas!

However, if you are visiting in the winter months like we did, you cannot beat the views from the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise!

Matterhorn Glacier Paradise vs Gornergrat

If you’re planning a trip to Zermatt, you’ve likely seen people talk about both the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise and the Gornergrat. These are arguably the two top things to do in Zermatt, especially in winter!

The Gornergrat is reached by a picturesque red cogwheel train that winds up the mountain to 3,089 meters, right in front to the Matterhorn. At the top, there’s a viewing platform, a restaurant, and a VR experience.

Depending on what time of year you are visiting, there are different activities at the various Gornergrat stations. In summer, there are many beautiful hiking trails, some of which take you right in front of the Matterhorn, like the Lake Riffelsee hike.

In winter, there are also snowy winter hiking trails in this area, as well as sledding trails, and the famous Iglu-Dorf hotel where you can eat fondue on the mountain!

Unfortunately when we visited Switzerland in early December, neither the Iglu-Dorf nor the sledding trails were open yet. This is part of the reason we chose the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise over Gornergrat for our non-ski day.

But if I were visiting in the summer, I’d definitely prioritize the Gornergrat hiking over the views of Matterhorn Glacier Paradise.

So, if you have to pick just one, which area you choose really depends on your budget, your interests, and the time of year you are visiting.

Most people don’t want to pay for both since it can get very pricey! However, there is also the Peak2Peak ticket, which allows you to visit both mountain areas on the same day.

During the winter, this ticket starts at just CHF 165, which is way cheaper than if you bought the two tickets separately and visited on two different days. The price does go up in summer though!

This is a great option if you just can’t choose between the two!

Final Thoughts

So, is the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise experience worth it?

In my opinion, if you are visiting Zermatt in the winter, it is 100% worth it!

The views both on the way to the top and from the summit are absolutely incredible, especially when dusted with snow. We loved getting to stand above the clouds and see the Matterhorn from so many unique angles!

However, make sure to visit on a clear day (if you can) and book your ticket through GetYourGuide so you can cancel or reschedule up to 24 hours before!

If you are visiting in the summer time, it may still be worth visiting to you, but I would also consider the Gornergrat area for prettier views and hiking.

Check out all of my Switzerland blog posts below! 🇨🇭❄️🫕
A Magical One Week Switzerland Winter Itinerary!
Visiting Zermatt in the Winter: Everything to Know Before You Go
3 Perfect Days In Zermatt, Switzerland In The Winter!
Where to Stay in Zermatt, Switzerland in Winter (with Map!)
15 Bucket List Things to Do in Zermatt in the Winter!
A Complete Guide to Skiing in Zermatt, Switzerland
What To Wear In Zermatt In Winter: Detailed Packing Guide!
Visiting Basel In December: Christmas Markets & Beyond
Basel Christmas Itinerary: 2 Days In Basel In December
Christmas Market Trip To Colmar & Strasbourg From Basel!
What To Wear To European Christmas Markets (Packing Guide)