 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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saikee, The weekly lift pass is 350CHF for Zermatt only, or 394 to include Cervinia. That is £211 or £237. I'll be paying €154 for my Ski Welt area pass in March - that is £138 (all at current exchange rates).
But the lift pass isn't the only thing. You also have to look at the price of hotels or other accommodation, and the price of food and drink.
Looking in the Crystal brochure I happen to have handy, and picking the week I am actually travelling but ignoring any supplements, the most expensive in Ellmau is £614, with all the rest being under £600, some under £500.
There is only one under £600 for Zermatt, with the most expensive being over £1000.
I'm not actually going with Crystal this year, and haven't paid near brochure price, but I have never seen many seriously good discounts for Zermatt either.
I usually hope to manage on a total spend of around £600 - £650, while I think I would be closer to £1000 in Zermatt.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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alex_heney,
I normally drive to the resorts so I stayed in Cervinia last time I skied Zermatt. The other reason is Zermatt also disallows car access from the public. Apart from the risk of the strong wind preventing the links from open one can take 3 gondola/cable car from Cervinia and clip the ski on when one is actually in Zermatt.
Switzerland is always more costly to ski because of the dearer food and accommodation cost. By staying off resort I found skiing Ischgl, St Anton/Lech/Zurs, Davos/Kloster, St Moritz only slight more expensive than the rest. Assuming one does 40mph so a mere 15 minutes drive can create a circle of 10 miles radius and opens up a huge possibilities for affordable accommodations.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| papasmurf wrote: |
| yeah I'd like to punch who ever grampis is and his fleet of annoying slient taxis apart from the annoying tinkley bell that you only here just as they run you over....after going to the altesch resorts and seeing proper car free I only get more annoyed by Zermatt.. also this year a rather large amount of large trucks. |
How dare you? Have you seen Ron Jeremy that drives one of the Grampi's cabs? 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Word of warning - Val d'Isere makes Zermatt seem like McDonalds. The toff count is off the scale
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Did Zermatt last March, absolutely breathtaking and skiing fantastic. Cervinia great wide open cruising,not as challenging as Z. Took kids and found ski school very good, although expensive. Did not find it too busy or getting between areas a problem
BUT
Also extremely irritated with supposedly car free status, then get almost run over with kids by electric taxis on several occasions.
Winds closed high lifts and links for first 5 days that we were there, felt a bit cheated and apparently this happens quite often.
Expensive, especially shopping! Food on mountains expensive but very good.
Definitely conflicting opinions , would love to go again if money was no object and it was truly car free.
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Zermatt is not the best at everything (except on mountain food and the Matterhorn), but they are right up there in all departments. There's enough terrian betweeen Zermatt and Cervinia to keep you interested for a least a week. All lot of the pistes are tedious motorways, but there are ways around that if you know where to go. There's unlimited off piste (if you know where to go). There's some great (steeper) skiing in Cervinia if you know where to look. The lift tickets are steep but the upgraded lift system lets you get around easily and you can get to a ton of good skiing quickly. Wind and weather are an issue, but that's a fact of life at high altitude resorts. It's not a controlled environment. I've skied at most of the major and many of the lesser known areas in the alps and on balance, the Zermatt experience is one of the best, if not the best. Being a North American, I'm oblivious to a lot of the activities that Brits find annoying about other Brits, Russians, etc. I would advise staying at a hotel in close proximity to a lift so that you don't waste time and energy just getting to the lift. Also, get up the hill early, break for lunch early, take a mid-afternoon break for coffee and then stay on the hill late. Ski the lower runs (like the one from Furgg to Furri) early in the day before they are chewed up by traffic and jammed with rubber legged tourists. Either download at the end of the day or take the easy way down. It's safer and easier on your legs.
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choucas,
Fair view.
Regardless of what other say this resort is in the league of top choices a serious skier must visit at least once. As a facility it is wel put together. Visitors not visiting Cervinia while in Zermatt, or the other way round, only get half the truth.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Charlatanefc wrote: |
| papasmurf wrote: |
| yeah I'd like to punch who ever grampis is and his fleet of annoying slient taxis apart from the annoying tinkley bell that you only here just as they run you over....after going to the altesch resorts and seeing proper car free I only get more annoyed by Zermatt.. also this year a rather large amount of large trucks. |
How dare you? Have you seen Ron Jeremy that drives one of the Grampi's cabs? |
Always thought he look smore like a gone to pot luigi from Super mario in his one piece and funny hat
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Just booked my first ever trip to Zermatt for Easter, so I'll soon find out the truth behind these conflicting views. But I'm not reading anything too scary - it sounds as if Zermatt's not the greatest place in the world if you hate rich people, have no cash yourself or need to cover millions of miles of predictable perfectly connected piste motorways. As I've never yet been wound up by anyone's accent and loathe piste motorways, my only concern is whether my cash will go far enough.
Time to extend the mortgage, perhaps 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Just got back from half term in Zermatt (I went last year in January too). In response to some of the criticisms here:-
- if you get your back bottoms out of bed and get to the Kleine Matterhorn lift early enough (8.20 for 8.30 opening) you can be at the top (almost 4K metres) by 9.00 or skiing lower areas by 8.45. Last Thursday we were right down in Valtournenche (lift in CH from 1.6K to 3.9K then ski down to 1.5K in Italy) by 10.00 without breaking any speed records.
- for half term week queues were not too much of a problem, far less so than in larger french resorts
- Cervinia and Zermatt are like chalk and cheese, both good though
- Zermatt aint cheap but a pint can be had for 5SFR and food prices vary enormously. Lunch on the Cervinia side is far cheaper (spag bol 8 euros waitress service as opposed to 17SFR self service)
- didnt notice too many plummy accents around but then I wasn't particularly listening for them or worried about them. Just lots of different people speaking lots of different languages.
And it's a magical place with fantastic skiing!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Colin B,
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for half term week queues were not too much of a problem, far less so than in larger french resorts
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This is my observation too but I have some difficulty convincing others. My explanation is that the French like to stick to their resorts and so the queues would not be much a problem in Austria and Switzerland.
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saikee, The early part of the week we saw literally no queues at all. It was only in the second half of the week we saw a bit of a scrum for the first lifts in the morning and perhaps 10 minute queues at some chairs. All in all in all not a problem at all.
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FAQ
