The hike from the stylish Blue Lounge to the Fluhalp is easy peasy. It takes you along a glacial moraine high above Zermatt on an ever so slight gradient through the alpine mountain landscape. But even those scant few meters of altitude differential pay off, because the view… Yes, it simply is magic — both there and back again.
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Starting point Blue Lounge
You can reach the Blue Lounge from different points of the compass by taking the Sunnegga-, Gant-, Patrullarve- or Blauherd-Rothorn Paradise railways. The Blue Lounge is distinguished not only by its elegant interior but also, as is true of so much in Zermatt, by its spectacular views of the Matterhorn.
Depending on how you choose to make your way up to the Lounge — on foot via Findeln and Paradise or Tuftern, or by railway — you either fortify yourself on the terrace or gorge on Matterhorn views. No, of course, that won’t do; in any event, sooner or later everyone has to continue on and leave this powerful place behind.
Fluhalp mountain restaurant — and hotel
It so happens that very soon after setting out from the Blue Lounge toward Fluhalp you glimpse a new optical destination: in the distance below the boldly chiseled Adlerhorn peak you can already see the bright red window shutters of the Fluhalp Hotel and Restaurant shining in the sunlight. You skirt the famous Stellisee lake (this is the photo opp where all those spectacular pictures of the Matterhorn reflected in the lake at sunrise originate) and then gently walk the curving path uphill, getting closer to your day destination with every step. At least in our case.
The picturesque view here is like it is at the Matterhorn: you simply never tire of looking at the scenery and just can’t stop snapping pictures. As far as I’m concerned.
And woe unto anyone that turns for a look back! Not that you will turn into a pillar of salt, à la Sodom & Gomorrah, but you will turn into a photographer’s bipod, because you simply won’t be able to stop shooting the Matterhorn…
Continue contentedly on to the Fluhalp and you will be rewarded with a sun terrace and a novel perspective of the Matterhorn. As if there weren’t enough of those already. Along with it, you can have sliced fried potatoes with bratwurst or a fondue. Swiss style.
Or you may order something else from the menu, that’s totally fine, too. At most, it won’t be quite Swiss style any more. To each his own. But be sure to finish up with an “evil coffee.” A shot of digestive of plum or apricot brandy never hurts. And the cream to go with it, naturally…
Be that as it may, you can easily compensate for alcohol or calorie excesses, if any, on the hike back. Especially since the Matterhorn remains to be photographed a few more times.
A bit more Matterhorn on the way back…
Better take an extra-long roll of film with you on this hike, because there is plenty to capture on it. And then it could happen unexpectedly anytime that an Air Zermatt helicopter makes a stopover in your shot…
And if the hungries should hit unexpectedly on the way back, do yourself a favor and detour around the Blue Lounge, take the Sunnegga gondola and then wander in the direction of Weiler Findeln. Here you’ll have the agony of choice, not just of beautiful Matterhorn photo subjects with cute wooden chalets, but no less than three exceptional restaurants. How what pleases the palate where there, Katja will dish on soon in a special restaurant reportage.
One thing you can be sure of already: here, too, they serve that evil coffee and desserts! And, so you can once more walk off the buzz and the calories, you are offered the hike along the Findelnbach creek all the way down into Zermatt.
By the time you get there, everything should be back in balance…
Thank you for the tour, Nicole!
Zermatt Tourism delivered us confidently into the hands of Instagrammer Nicole Hunziker for this tour, because of how well she knows her away around the neighborhood. Indeed, she expertly led us on the wide, groomed way and also found the table reserved for our lunch right off the bat ;-)
