In December we traveled to Switzerland for the first time. We stayed in Zermatt which is the most dreamy town at the foot of the famous Matterhorn. It’s a very popular spot for skiing and hiking, especially during the winter. The main street in Zermatt is lined with shops, restaurants and hotels. When we first walked through the town at night it looked like a Christmas movie with beautiful lights and even ice sculptures!
I’ll be creating a Zermatt guide soon, but today’s blog post is all about an unique experience during out time here. We spent the night in an igloo village surrounded by snowy mountains and endless stars.
About Iglu-Dorf
Iglu-Dorf has a total of six igloo villages which are based in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Each Igloo village is rebuild every winter by talented artists with attention to detail. We got to spent the night at Iglu-Dorf in Zermatt, Switzerland located at an altitude of 2.727 meters in the Swiss Alps. Iglu-Dorf has a variety of rooms in the village ranging from the igloo-suites with their own bathrooms and private whirlpool to the romantic igloos which have everything you need to sleep comfortably (not your own toilet or whirlpool). I absolutely recommend getting a suite with your own whirlpool, as the Matterhorn views from these rooms is incredible! During our stay it was even full moon so you could see the Matterhorn perfectly at night. One of my favorite parts is that each room is unique with it’s own ice design, our room had a two bison’s made from ice on our wall.
The experience
We started by taking the train from Zermatt town in direction of Gornergrat and getting out at the Rotenboden station. Here you meet your guide that takes you on a 15 minute walk downhill to the igloo village. I recommend not bringing a big suitcase so it’s easier to get down. We were able to leave our luggage at our previous hotel and bring our important belongings in our bag.
When you arrive at Iglu-Dorf you get warm drinks joined by a tour around the village where you get shown where everything is such as the main bathrooms and warm changing area for the shared whirlpool outside. For dinner we had cheese fondue together with a platter of snacks and some warm tea which was all lovely.
There were plenty of amenities & activities in the village to amuse ourselves during the night. We started with some more warm drinks in the hut bar with a nice fire which was very cozy and my favorite place to warm up. Later in the night there was a snowshoe trek with breathtaking views of the stars and mountains. There is also plenty of time to check out the outdoor whirlpool which has a view on the Matterhorn. At the end of the night we crawled into our sleeping bags which can withstand -40 °C weather. They also zipped them together for us to we could keep each other warm. I was surprised that after a few minutes the sleeping bags felt warm even with the temperatures in the igloo being around 0 °C
In the morning we were woken up by the guides at 7:00 AM who brought us a warm cup of tea. We packed our things and headed for a 15 minute hike downhill to enjoy our breakfast at Riffelhaus hotel in Riffelberg.
Zermatt Tourism #homeofwinter Igloo
For those of you that would love to visit but simply don’t have enough time in Zermatt or missed out on reserving a room on time. You can stop by Iglu-Dorf during the day for a drink at the outside bar or some delicious cheese fondue. This year Zermatt Tourism also opened their own igloo called #homeofwinter igloo which you can enter for free to explore and take pictures with the iconic Matterhorn view. They even have a competition at the moment where you can win an overnight stay for 2 people by posting your #homeofwinter igloo pictures while using the hashtag.
Would you spend the night in an igloo village in the Swiss Alps? This is definitely one of those things to add to your bucket list when visiting Zermatt in the winter!
