Getting to Verbier, Zermatt or Crans-Montana by taxi: the transfer guide

Why door-to-door changes everything in the mountains

A resort transfer is not an ordinary journey. It happens with two pairs of skis per person, boots that fit in no bag, a suitcase each, often children, and almost always a fixed deadline — the rental shop closing, the first lift, the train home.

By train that means carrying the lot to the station, changing at Martigny or Sion, taking a funicular or a postbus, then finishing on a resort shuttle. Every connection is a place where something can go wrong, and the amount of luggage never decreases.

By taxi everything starts at your door and stops in front of the chalet or hotel, without a single connection. Declare your equipment when booking: the price shown before you book you confirm already accounts for it, and nothing is added on arrival.

Driving time and price, resort by resort

Distances from Lausanne, by road. Prices are what our system quotes today, one way for the vehicle, and recalculate themselves if the grid changes.

The times shown assume a clear road. In high season, on a Saturday changeover, the final climb can take thirty to sixty minutes longer.

The car-free villages: Zermatt and Saas-Fee

This is the point visitors sometimes discover too late.

Zermatt is closed to cars. The taxi drops you at Täsch, the last accessible village, from where a shuttle train reaches Zermatt in about twelve minutes. It runs frequently and is built for luggage, but it has to be counted into your timing — and you will carry your things from the car park to the platform.

Saas-Fee is also car-free. Drop-off is at the village entrance car parks, from where electric shuttles and luggage carts serve the hotels.

In both cases, tell us how much luggage you have: the driver will set you down as close as possible to the useful access point, not simply "at the village".

Snow, chains and winter tyres

Switzerland sets no calendar date for winter tyres, unlike several neighbouring countries. However, a driver whose unsuitable equipment causes an accident or blocks traffic is answerable for it. In practice, that makes them anything but optional.

Our vehicles run on winter tyres through the season and carry chains. The main climbs — Martigny–Le Châble–Verbier, Sion–Crans-Montana, the Visp valley up to Täsch — are cleared as a priority, but a snowfall can force chains on the last kilometres, which adds time.

Two practical consequences. First, allow margin on a snowy day: nobody reaches Verbier in the usual time under thirty centimetres of fresh snow. Second, your price does not move: the price is set before departure, and extra time caused by snow is not billed back to you.

When to leave to catch the first lift

The rule we apply: lift opening time, minus the drive, minus thirty minutes. Those thirty minutes cover drop-off, picking up rental equipment and queuing for lift passes, which is often the real bottleneck of a first day.

For Verbier from Lausanne that means leaving around 6 a.m. for a 9 a.m. first lift. For Zermatt, add the shuttle train from Täsch: leaving around 5:30 a.m. is sensible. These times are discussed when you book — tell us when you want to be on skis and dispatch works out the departure.

The return: book it when you book the way up

This is the most useful advice on this page. At the end of the day an entire resort tries to come down at once, and cars available on the spot are scarce — they drove up with customers who are not leaving yet.

Booking the return in the same booking solves it: the car is committed for your descent time. It is also cheaper per journey than two separate bookings, and during our autumn offer the saving on long distances is substantial.

Groups, families and equipment

The mountains are where vehicle size genuinely matters. Our fleet covers three cases:

• Saloon or estate — two or three people with skis, or four without bulky equipment.
• Mercedes V-Class — up to seven passengers with skis and suitcases; the resort transfer vehicle par excellence.
• Toyota Proace Verso — up to eight passengers, for groups and large families.

Child seats, boosters and infant carriers are provided on request when booking, and any cost appears in the price before you confirm. Give the children's age and weight: the right seat is not the same at nine months and at six years.

From Geneva Airport, not only from Lausanne

A large share of the transfers we run in winter start at Geneva Airport rather than Lausanne: Saturday-morning flights unload skiers who need to be in resort before midday.

We cover every Valais and Vaud Alps resort from the airport, under the same rule: price quoted in advance, flight tracking to absorb delays, skis and luggage included. Resort-by-resort detail is on our ski transfers page and on the transfers from Geneva Airport pages.