Gornergrat ticket reviews: all five, scored
The short version. Five tickets, five reviews, and they are not equally worth your money. The Gornergrat Railway ticket rated 4.7 from 672 people is the one I would buy, and I say that knowing a second listing sells the identical ride for about 60 per cent more. Two of the five are not the Gornergrat at all: one is the cable car up the other side of the valley, one is a coach day out of Geneva. The private day has been reviewed by seven people. I print every rating next to the number of people who left it, because those two numbers only mean something together.
The five tickets side by side
Prices are per person and in Swiss francs. The highlighted row is the one most visitors should be buying; the row below it is the same journey with a larger number on it. The price page sets all of this against the railway’s own published tariff.
| Ticket | Rating | Price | What you are buying |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gornergrat Railway Cogwheel Train Ticket | 4.7 from 672 | CHF 132 | The return train from Zermatt to the 3,089 m ridge, valid one day, with the ZOOOM exhibition. The ticket this site exists for. |
| Matterhorn Glacier Paradise Cable Car Ticket | 4.8 from 1,304 | CHF 104 | A different mountain: cable cars to 3,883 m, the Glacier Palace and the viewing platform, on the other side of the valley. |
| Geneva: Zermatt and Matterhorn Day Trip by Panoramic Bus | 4.8 from 129 | CHF 125 | A 13-hour coach day from Geneva with free time in the village. No railway ticket in the price. |
| From Zermatt: Cogwheel Train Ticket to Mount Gornergrat | 4.4 from 38 | CHF 206 | The same train, the same summit, the same exhibition as the first row, sold at about 60 per cent more. |
| Zermatt: Village Walk and Mount Gornergrat Private Day Trip | 5.0 from 7 | CHF 498 | Six hours with a private guide, a village walk, a museum entrance and food. Per person, minimum two people. |
The five reviews
Zermatt: Gornergrat Railway Cogwheel Train Ticket
The flagship. Return train to 3,089 m, ZOOOM included, and the same fare the counter charges.
from CHF 132Read the review ›
Zermatt: Matterhorn Glacier Paradise Cable Car Ticket
The biggest sample of the five, and a different mountain: 3,883 m, the Glacier Palace, and a 15:45 last descent.
from CHF 104Read the review ›
Geneva: Zermatt and Matterhorn Day Trip by Panoramic Bus
Thirteen hours, most of them on the road, for people without a car and without a night in Zermatt.
from CHF 125Read the review ›
From Zermatt: Cogwheel Train Ticket to Mount Gornergrat
The same ride as the flagship for about 60 per cent more, the lowest rating here, and one ticket that would not scan.
from CHF 206Read the review ›
Zermatt: Village Walk and Mount Gornergrat Private Day Trip
Seven reviews, one of them a four with a warning attached. Six hours, private guide, museum and food.
from CHF 498Read the review ›How I score a ticket
I spent four winters and three summers selling these fares at the window in Zermatt, so I start where the counter starts: the operator’s own tariff. A return to Gornergrat is CHF 132 in the summer band and CHF 102 in winter, and any listing that charges more than that is charging you for something. Then I read what the listing itself states is included, what it states it is not suitable for, and what happens if the weather turns. Last of all I look at the rating, together with how many people are behind it. A ticket cannot be graded on the number alone.
What I do not do is rank a 5.0 above a 4.7. Seven people can keep a listing perfect for a long time; 672 people cannot. Where a rating is low I say what it is made of, which on one of these five is a traveller whose ticket would not scan at the machine.
What a rating cannot tell you
Every ticket here puts you on the same public train or the same public cable car as everyone else, so almost nothing in these reviews is about the operator. It is about the mountain and the day you picked. The summit sits roughly 1,500 m above Zermatt and the Matterhorn spends plenty of days inside a cloud. Nobody who paid CHF 132 for fog rates the ticket badly, because the ticket did what it said. They just wasted the money, which is worse. Free cancellation runs to 24 hours before departure on these listings, and on this trip that clause is worth more than any star.
Leona from Germany left five stars on the railway ticket and wrote “Perfectly organized, an experience, but very expensive.” That is the fairest sentence anyone has written about the Gornergrat, and no rating system captures it. Whether it is worth it is a separate question from whether it is well run.
Where the money actually goes
Before you book any of these, check whether you are about to pay full price without needing to. A Swiss Travel Pass, a Half-Fare Card, a GA or an Adventure Card takes exactly 50% off the railway fare, which turns CHF 132 into CHF 66. None of them makes the ride free, and that misconception costs people more than anything else I saw at the window. Children travel free to their sixth birthday in summer and to their ninth in winter. The discounts page lists every pass that qualifies, and the hiking ticket at CHF 108 is the cheaper route for anyone willing to walk one leg downhill.
Frequently asked questions
Which Gornergrat ticket has the most reviews?
The Matterhorn Glacier Paradise cable car ticket, with 1,304 ratings at 4.8 — but that is the other mountain. Of the two Gornergrat train tickets, the flagship has 672 ratings at 4.7 and the dearer listing has 38 at 4.4. See the flagship review for what those 672 people are actually describing.
Is a 5.0 ticket better than a 4.7 one?
Not on its own. The private day trip rates 5.0 from seven reviews; the railway ticket rates 4.7 from 672. Seven people are a small sample, and one of those seven left four stars saying a private tour is not worth the money. Read both pages and decide on price and length instead, which is how the ticket list is arranged.
Do these tickets cost more than buying at the station?
No. The Gornergrat return is CHF 132 in summer at the counter and CHF 132 on the booking page. There is no cheaper online price either, so booking ahead buys you the queue, not a discount. What it does buy is free cancellation up to 24 hours before, which matters when you are buying a view. The price page has the full tariff.
Are these reviews independent?
I am not the railway and I do not sell tickets. Gornergrat Bahn AG runs the line and gornergrat.ch is its own site. If you book through a link here, GetYourGuide pays me a commission and you pay the same price, which is set out in the affiliate disclosure. It has not stopped me telling you that one of these five listings is the same train for 60 per cent more.