The Basics: Army Organization Sponsored Trips
There are several organizations (MWR, USO, private German companies) that offer organized trips for military members and families from post. Our trip to Zermatt was one such trip offered through a military organization. These trips have both positive and negative aspects to them. Depending on where you are going, they may be cheaper than planning yourself. For us, taking an organized tour to Zermatt was less expensive than planning one ourselves. Many of our friends with children tell us that these trips are usually more expensive for people with kids because they charge nearly as much for a young child as they would for an adult. For this reason, most of the people on our trip were either single or couples without children. Also, we were the only family with an enlisted sponsor on the trip. The rest of the trip was split about 50/50 between officers and civilian workers. Not that this was an issue, but it was interesting to us how these trips aren't utilized by the families that we felt could get the most benefit from them. Of course, we are also dual income and child free, so we probably don't fit the bill for the majority of enlisted families.
Organized trips usually utilize chartered buses to keep the prices low. The organizations hire tour guides that are able to drive the bus and typically cook meals in order to offer a deal to military members. On our trip, the bus ride was 8 hours long, not including stops, and our tour guide cooked dinner (including Thanksgiving) each night. Breakfast was included at the hotel. The bus ride was the worst part of the trip, by far. It was not just the fact that it took 8 hours, but mostly how obnoxious the other riders acted. Literally, within 5 minutes of getting on the bus, grown adults were already fighting over who got to sit where and moving each other's belongings around in order to get a "better" seat. About half the bus was belligerently drunk and the woman sitting behind me eventually threw up on the stairs leading to the bathroom. Did I mention this woman was in her fifties? Luckily, Zermatt was enjoyable enough to make up for the irritation of riding on a bus full of 20 to 50 year old children. Greg and I agreed that the drama of the bus was almost enough to ruin the trip for us.
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| View from our hotel room |
Others complained that the hotel chosen by the organization did not meet their personal standards. This wasn't really an issue for us because we just aren't picky when it comes to hotel rooms. As long as it's clean and comfortable, we're happy. Actually, when we first arrived we were really impressed by the view from our balcony. I guess our expectations of the hotel were much lower than most of the others on our trip.
In the future, we probably won't take organized group trips like this. It's unfortunate because I think the organization actually did an amazing job with the trip, but dealing with other individuals complaining and acting inappropriately kind of turned us off to the idea of group trips. We did make a few friends and enjoyed a great Thanksgiving dinner, though. Maybe we'll see another organized trip to a place that we really want to go and change our minds later down the road. One of our personal favorite aspects of the group trip was that we were able to go somewhere we always wanted without having to put any effort into planning it ourselves. Either way, we had a great time and are very happy we went, but it was definitely a learning experience for us.
Zermatt, Switzerland: What to Expect from the Country and the Town
Before we went to Switzerland, everyone warned us it was crazy expensive. We looked up the exchange rate from dollars to Swiss Francs and checked out the lift ticket prices, which were pretty comparable to what we paid in Colorado, and didn't really believe everyone. If a Franc is about 90 cents and lift tickets cost the same as Keystone and Breckenridge, how can it really be that expensive? Well, we were completely jaded. After arriving at our hotel and taking a nap to sleep off the miserable bus ride, we figured we would stop at McDonalds for a cheap snack to hold us over until dinner. Instead, we paid $30 for freakin' McDonalds. Lesson learned! On the mountain, lunch at the cafeteria ran us about $60. If you take a trip to Switzerland, be prepared, it's insanely expensive. Bring a ton of Francs and don't plan to make any major purchases like ski gear. However, you can get good deals on Swiss army knifes and quality chocolate if you are interested.
Zermatt does not allow cars. In order to get to the city of Zermatt, you have to park at the train station in Tasch and take a 15 minute train ride up the mountain. In the town, you'll notice that the hotel's cars and taxis are these little boxes on wheels powered by electricity. They aren't allowed to go over 20 km. There is a complimentary electric bus that takes you from various stops near hotels and up to the ski lifts. Honestly, it probably takes less time to walk than it does to wait at the bus stop and on the bus itself. If you don't mind walking in your ski or snowboard boots, seriously consider it.
The city itself is absolutely gorgeous and exactly what I would imagine of the Swiss Alps. Many of the building were made of old timber wood with pops of color provided by bright red and green shutters and window boxes. A thick layer of snow covered everything, even in November. A recreational ice skating rink was a short walk from our hotel where children practiced skating in the afternoons and adults had pick up games of hockey in the evening. A little stream of deep blue glacier water ran through the center of the town. We walked around on the day we arrived in awe of the beautiful scenery.
Snowboarding the Matterhorn
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| Click the map for source |
The main two reasons most people come to Zermatt is either for a legendary hiking experience on the famous Matterhorn or to enjoy one of the most world renowned ski areas. Of course, we were there for the later. The Matterhorn Paradise ski area is open year-round, but the actual opening weekend for the ski season was on Saturday. Prior to that, only a limited amount of slopes were open.
In order to get to the slopes from the town, you have to take an insanely long gondola ride. I mean really, to get all the way to the top of Matterhorn Glacier Paradise will take you close to an hour. The first day we stopped at Trockener Steg for the couple of intermediate pistes that were open. We actually bought passes for both the Zermatt lifts and the Cervinia, Italy lifts but never actually went to the Italian side. Others were complaining that it was too icy on that side of the mountain while we were visiting. Honestly, I think it would have just been too much time spent on gondolas and lifts for us than actually snowboarding.
The views from up there were beautiful. The first day we went, it was perfectly clear and you could see for miles. The pistes themselves in the area we were in left a little to be desired. Before going, we were warned that the Matterhorn ski areas were much more ski friendly than snowboard friendly. There were several areas where you were pretty much forced to take off your board and walk if you didn't pick up enough speed because the run would flatten out. That became exhausting after a while. In one such area, a skier had a bit of a spill that required being air lifted from the mountain. The helicopter landed right in the middle of the piste. I'm proud to say that I did not have any major falls, but Greg did have one pretty hilarious one while trying to show off in the powder beside the run. He ended up waist deep in snow and took several minutes to crawl out. Luckily, he got it all on his GoPro so hopefully I'll have videos to add to this post once he's done editing.
On Saturday, most of the lifts were opened for the season. Sadly, the weather was awful. When we woke up, it was snowing lightly but not too cloudy outside so we decided to head up to the Gornergrat side of the ski area where we had been told the pistes were better for snowboarding. By the time we arrived up there, a thick fog had set in and you could barely see whether or not you were still on the piste. It was icy and miserable. We ended up getting to the bottom and deciding to take a break to see if the weather improved because we were so irritated with not being able to see the ground in front of us. After 2 hours, it was still just as foggy and nasty and we weren't having any fun, so we headed back off the mountain. At 2 pm, it was perfectly clear again on the mountain and we were a little upset we didn't get to enjoy snowboarding that day. If the weather was more clear, Gornergrat would have definitely been much better for snowboarding than Glacier Paradise.
We had a very memorable vacation
We really enjoyed our trip to Zermatt, but we know that we most likely will not go back again. It was beautiful and snowboarding was enjoyable, but it was a little too expensive for what it was. We love that we have the ability to say we snowboarded in the Swiss Alps at one of the most famous locations in the world, but the actual snowboarding wasn't that great. We did learn from our friends on the trip of other better and less expensive places to go in Austria and France, so we'll probably check those out. I told Greg I would like to come back to Switzerland one day in spring or summer to do some hiking, but we probably won't go back to snowboard again. The landscape was truly breathtaking and I hope to see it some time when it isn't completely covered in snow. |
| Lake Lucerne on our way home. |
Our next snowboard trip is planned for Garmisch, Germany in January. We may take a day trip in December to a place in the Black Forest, but it probably won't be anything special. There are a few other trips we would like to take soon, but it all depends on me and my work. I was recently offered a great opportunity that would allow me to make significantly more money and, most importantly, have much better job security doing something I enjoy. Everything is still pretty tentative right now, but if it all works out, we'll have a better outlook for the future. Of course, it would also mean that for a short time we wouldn't be able to take any major trips while I'm building up vacation. In the meantime, December in Germany means Christmas Markets, which are basically a month long party. I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunity to drink mulled wine and eat festival foods in the weeks to come.
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| Sun rising over the Matterhorn |
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| Sun setting over the Matterhorn |
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