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Getting there
We left the house at 7.30am on the 17th September and drove to Manchester Airport for a 9.00am Easyjet flight to Geneva. Progress through the airport was fairly normal, I think fewer travellers offset any additional time for Covid checks and the flight left on time at 11.00am.

A new policy at Easyjet specified cabin luggage as only 45 x 30 x 20cm so we booked a hold bag for most of our gear then filled our cabin luggage with the key items, sleeping bags, tent etc.. stuff that would be expensive and difficult to replace should the worst happen to our hold bag.

Both cabin bags were a bit over the size, but there was no problem. Our fallback was to put on the clothing that was stashed in the bags if we had to reduce their size.

We landed in Geneva at 13.50 local time. Brexit resulted in a 40 minute queue to get through Passport control as the EU nationals breezed through. Even though Switzerland isn’t in the EU it does act as if it is in many areas. We had to show proof of our double vaccination.

By 15.01 our train was pulling out of the airport station heading for Visp, where we changed for Zermatt, arriving at 18.51, ten minutes before the outdoor store opposite the station plaza was due to close, we nipped straight in and bought the screw in gas cartridges we needed. We also went into the COOP virtually next door for lunches, cheese and cereal bars for a couple of days. Finally we went off to find the hotel we’d booked.

I’ve been to Zermatt a few times now and it’s a beautiful place, made better because cars and vans are banned from its streets. The Matterhorn is visible from many areas of the town and it’s a mesmerising sight.

Getting back was the reverse of coming out.
We had a day in Zermatt as tourists before travelling home on the Sunday. On the Saturday night we carried out lateral flow tests under remote supervision via our mobile phones and that allowed us onto the plane.

The train left Zermatt at 10.13am and arrived at Geneva airport at 2pm, an hour and a half before our flight time of 16.25. Due to the time difference we arrived in Manchester airport at 17.15.

We had purchased PCR tests before we left for Switzerland and we carried these out in the car park at Manchester Airport on our return. This allowed us to take them to the drop off point at the Hilton Hotel near Terminal 1. They were negative.

Tour of the Matterhorn – Trip Report

Tour of the Matterhorn – Costs

Mark Richardson
Mark was the founder of Ultralight Outdoor Gear back in 2006 and has completed long distance backpacking routes in some of the remotest parts of the world. His favourite hikes have been Torres del Paine (full circuit), the John Muir trail and the Markha Valley trail (Ladakh, India). Although semi-retired Mark has not lost any enthusiasm for minimalist backpacking and is tackling Scotland’s Munros choosing multi-day backpacking routes over the more usual guide book excursions. Read more from Mark Richardson