Zermatt

The country's first electric rack line, laid in 1898 and still on the same rails. Sit on the right going up for the Matterhorn in the window and the left gets rock wall, while for a few summer weeks an extra run leaves before sunrise for first light on top.

The shape of the peak depends on where you stand to look at it. From the village the face is a blade, but come round to the east and it broadens into a wall that reads as a different mountain. Cloud catches the summit often, and a full clear day is rare.

A gallery cut into the glacier itself, so wall, ceiling and floor are all ice. The figures carved inside melt and change shape from year to year, and nobody sees the same one twice. It is held below freezing, so do not go in without a thick coat.

Keep clear of the middle of the main street. The only vehicles in the village are stubby electric ones that ring a bell instead of a horn, and it carries so little that people miss what is behind them. Hotel carts pull the luggage up from the station.

The first ascent of 1865 lost four men coming down. The rope that parted lies under glass here. It is no thicker than a finger and loosely laid, letting a visitor guess for themselves. Old village houses were rebuilt inside, so the basement runs like a lane.

One lane off the main street stands a cluster of blackened timber granaries. Each rests on round stone discs set atop its posts, so a rat can climb the post and get no further. A few are still in use for storage.

The path strings five lakes along a ridge, and the Matterhorn shows in three of them; the other two sit where the wind funnels and never settle. Most of it drops, so it is walked from the top down.

A footbridge of 494 metres strung across the valley. The deck is steel grating and the drop sits under your feet, and with several people on it the span moves up and down in time with the steps. It went up in 2017 after rockfall ruined the earlier crossing.

Pistes on the glacier stay open through high summer, and people ski there in July and August. It ends before the snow softens. So it opens mornings only and shuts by afternoon. The village is in shirtsleeves while the top is below freezing, and you carry both.

A local breed, black only on the face and knees under a heavy white fleece, with horns that curl sideways. In summer they scatter across the pastures above the village, turning up on the paths, and they do not move off for people.

A gondola link completed in 2023 that carries you over the Klein Matterhorn to Cervinia in Italy by cable car alone. Long stretches run high above the glacier, and it stops in bad weather. It crosses a border, so bring a passport or ID card.

Past the last chalets heading south, glacier meltwater has carved a slot through green serpentine. Timber steps and bridges pinned to the walls pass just above a torrent loud enough to stop conversation. Summer-only, with an admission charge.

A small lake a few minutes' walk down from Rotenboden station on the Gornergrat railway. With no wind at dawn the Matterhorn is mirrored in it, and photographers line the bank shoulder to shoulder. Once the sun climbs, the breeze ruffles the surface.

An old hamlet about an hour's walk up the western valley, a cluster of sun-blackened larch houses and a small chapel. The Matterhorn's north wall fills the view all the way there. Rest on the terrace of one of its couple of restaurants before heading down.

A hamlet of larch barns and huts scattered below Sunnegga. In winter it sits among the ski runs and people stop for lunch with skis still on; in summer you hike up. The Matterhorn framed between barns is a regular postcard shot.

A small mountain lake reached by cable car, with one white chapel on its shore. The path to the Hornli hut, where the Matterhorn climbing route begins, sets off here. Even without going on to the hut, a lap of the lake gives a fine view up at the peak.

A car-free village where a glacier valley dead-ends, reached by bus from Visp, the ice reaching down behind the houses. Cable car and an underground funicular climb to the revolving Allalin restaurant. Smaller and quieter than Zermatt, it suits a day trip.

The longest glacier in the Alps, over 20 kilometres, its surroundings listed as UNESCO natural heritage. From Fiescheralp or Bettmeralp the cable car to the Eggishorn shows the ice river curving away in one view. From Zermatt it is a day by train via Visp.

A panorama train across the Alps from Zermatt to St Moritz; at nearly eight hours it is nicknamed the slowest express in the world. It crosses hundreds of bridges and tunnels and peaks at the Oberalp Pass. Seats need booking, and meals are served at your seat.