Luxembourg is not one of Europe’s tourist magnet places. I knew it when I searched for Luxembourg guide, what to do in Luxembourg, where to go in Luxembourg and had much less hits than any of my previous trip destinations 🙂
Luxembourg is a small country and hence many people assume there is nothing much to see or do. Actually I was one of those people with little to none expectation, so I’m extra happy that I get to overcome my prejudices about this country. Travel is indeed the medicine to broad and correct your views!
That being said, make no mistake Luxembourg is indeed a small country. And if you are looking for going into from one tourist action to another this is not a place of your dreams. I would say you need at least 3-4 days for Rome just to cover main attractions but for Luxembourg, it is a place I can suggest for a weekend or even a day trip. Though I mean it in a positive way because sometimes you need an easygoing trip with no need for “I have to see this here, I must do this” kind of rush.
But this is just for the capital Luxembourg City itself, actually I enjoyed my trips from capital to other regions as much as -even more than Luxembourg. Being small in size comes in handy for easy travel to nearby cities!
And as you can judge by the size of this Luxembourg guide, it may not be as small as you think 😉
So as usual I will start with summary info for Luxembourg guide and then we will go into details for what to see in Luxembourg.
Oh and in the meantime you may also want to check out this short video of yours truly gezielciniz in Luxembourg .
How to get to Luxembourg: Even though it is small (God, small will be the most used word of this guide isn’t it :p) there is an airport, and you can find many promotion flights so it doesn’t have to be costly. Though since it is located in BeNeLux region (Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg) many travelers chose to come via trains too.
Airport transport from Luxembourg City: I was pleasantly surprised once again to find a cheap airport transfer capital city after Lisbon. I mean come on guys Luxembourg has Lux in its name, and one of the known facts about Luxembourg is that citizens enjoy a high income here matched only but high living costs. Yeah, of course I expect a hefty transport price! well I was surprised, very much! You can get to city center with a 2 euro ticket valid for 2 hours. You should get into bus 16 (bus 29 also goes but bus 16 is faster). In fact if you would like to buy a day ticket it is just 4 euro, and best part, it is freaking valid for whole country!
Yes you read that right, so you can just hope into a train and go to another city in 1-2 hour distance and come back with this day ticket because it will give you access to every public transport (bus, trains) in all country not just capital Luxembourg City!
And by the way, if you want to take a taxi from airport, it is 6-7 km distance to city center and should cost around 25 euro.
Luxembourg guide – Vianden Castle
Visa: European citizens can stay as long as they want, while USA and Canada citizens can visit up to 90 days without a visa, if you also have Schengen visa it should be valid here, after all the famous Schengen is a village of Luxembourg.
Food Drink: If I am to name one Luxembourg dish to try it would be Judd mat gaardebounen. Made from pork meat, accompanied by potatoes and beans it certainly has a German cuisine feeling. Actually Luxembourg cuisine, like city itself, a mixture of German and French cuisine. And of course you will find many fast food and doner places as usual.
Things to do: Casemates du Bock(part of Unesco World heritage list, a fortress made of caves), Corniche (Europe’s most beautiful balcony), Kathedral, Palace of the Grand Dukes, Place Guillaume II, Town Hall, Place d’Armes square, Grund (old city district), Clairefontaine Square and Duchess Charlotte Memorial, Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial
And if you have additional days, you may want to consider day trips to:
Vianden: Medieval style town with a castle, part of Unesco cultural heritage since 2013.
Schengen: Just for sake of saying you have been in Schengen 🙂 There are couple of memorials and a museum for EU and Schengen agreement. There is a fairy tail style tower just behind and actually starting point for Luxembourg wine route.
3 euro for the wax figure, 2 euro for the book 🙂
Yes, there is a wine route you can follow and you can make stops along the way to taste and buy Luxembourg local wine producers.
And there is another part of Luxembourg known as Little Swiss -a region famous for its nature and hiking trails.
Prices: Luxembourg is not a cheap city. I would say prices are above European average though not as high as Norway and Denmark level! But still you can tell it is an expensive and small city when you notice there is only one hostel and its over 20 euro per night!
I stayed in this only one hostel and paid 65 euro for 3 nights, including breakfast and it was a clean nice hostel. Some other prices to give you an idea:
Coffee 2,5-3 euro, beer 3-5 euro, main dish in a normal restaurant startsaround 12 euro, but average prices are around 20 euro. Fast food menus are around 8-10 euro and a Turkish doner would be 4.5 euro.
The only paid tourist attraction in Luxembourg city De Bock is 6 euro.
Luxembourg guide – sunday market
Luxembourg Card: Like many touristic city, Luxembourg has its own city card that offers visitors discounts and free entries to cities attractions. 2017 prices for Luxembourg card was 13 euro for 1 day and 20 euro for 2 days. As part of gezielciniz Luxembourg guide, let me calculate for you if it is worth to get this card 🙂
In short unless you plan to go to Vianden, you are ok without it!
As I mentioned above day ticket for transport is 4 euro and castle entry in Vianden is 7 euro, and Casametes du Bock is 6 euro. So if you plan to go to Casametes du Bock in the morning and then go to vianden and visit castle then you are good! Also this card will save you 5 euro more allowing you to free entry to Victor Hugo’s house in Vianden but you are not missing much if you pass this attraction!
Alright, now time for Luxembourg guide details on where to go in Luxembourg.
There is frankly no need for public transport usage in Luxembourg City, as city center and interest points are close and small to each other. But you may need it if you plan to visit American Cemetery as it is a bit further. In any case if you need to buy it 2 hours tickets are 2 euro and day tickets are 4 euro and I will never get tried of saying this but it is valid for all country 😀
I think at this point I should mention the actual size of Luxembourg just to get rid of your curiosity and save you a click to Google, country is around 2500 km square and total population is around 570 thousand. For capital Luxembourg City, it is 51 km square and population is around 107 thousand. (People from metropolitan cities can’t process this numbers smaller then their neighborhood now lol :D)
City center has classic European feeling, nice clean architecture, cobble stone streets with cafes on both sides, occasional fountains etc.. But you understand this is not a big city soon enough as you walk by same fountain for the 3rd time in an hour!
There is no tourist info in the airport but there is one in center, near one of the main squares. Dropping by as first thing and getting free city map is always good idea 🙂 Besides from a statue there is not much to see in this square but on Sundays there is market taking place here. And enjoying a freshly cooked home cake or croissant from this market could be a good breakfast idea.
You will find Cathedral just behind this square. It is a Gothic style nice Cathedral but can’t say it has a distinctly striking feature compared to other Cathedrals in Europe. If anything, it was first time that I stumbled upon modern style paintings inside a Cathedral.
Palace of the Grand Dukes is basically where the royal family’s home is 🙂 Fun fact, Luxembourg is the only remaining grand duchy. If you see the flag is raised it means currently there is someone from royal family in the house, so pay attention to this little detail 😉 But more importantly you will find one of the best spots in Luxembourg just across this place called “Chocolate House” . As the name suggests it is the place for a sweet stop but you will be surprised how delicious the cakes looked and how many flavors they have for hot chocolate! Not to mention this place is one of the remaining old style Luxembourg houses and it is actually a nice opportunity to see such structure from inside.
At this point you may still think, ok but I need pictures to put on Instagram so you should head to Corniche also known as best balcony view of Europe. Any Luxembourg guide has to feature it!
This is a viewing stop where you can look over to old city -also known as Grund and really has nice scenery. One of the best activity you can do in Luxembourg is just walk from here to old city following the downhill way and stop at Scott’s Pub for a coffee, beer, wine whatever you like drink with a nice river and old houses view (as in cover photo for this Luxembourg guide article).
But before heading down to old city, you should visit cities most known attraction in Luxembourg which is Casemates Du Bock. It is remains of an old fortress structure currently part of Unesco World Heritage. Structure itself is very old actually, parts of it started to be constructed in 10th century, at its peak it was over 23 km and 40 meter deep with many layers and really strong protection. Actually this fortress was so defensive that it was also known as Gibraltar of the North.
Unfortunately in 1867, as part of Luxembourg neutralization, they demolished this structure to 17 km. Only reason they didn’t destroyed more is because it would hurt city foundation itself. Right now you can visit and walk in some of these 17 km but of course only a small portion. You can get nice views of the city and some weaponry. There are many guides for this place you may want to consider joining one.
Another popular spot especially for USA visitors is the go to American Cemetery memorial where famous general George S. Patton also rests. Well, that’s it for Luxembourg guide! Actually you can fit all of above in one busy day. I stayed 4 days in Luxembourg City, and I used my 3rd and 4th days to visit other cities and regions in Luxembourg.
I went to Vianden, Schengen and Remich.
Vianden is a small cute place. Famous for its medieval style houses and castle, which came under protection of UNESCO Heritage in 2013. There are nice cafes along a nice street but notice lack of plurals in street 🙂 So it is very small city, but here are couple of other attractions here too along with visiting castle, you can also visit Victor Hugo’s house. Though unless you have 5 euros to burn or hard core fan of Victor Hugo you won’t be missing too much if you skip this one. House is very small as you can guess and there is not much personal belongings kind of exhibition. It would take 5 minutes to see all rooms and take a picture in the room with wax figure of Victor Hugo. By the way all books and notebooks decors, all writings are in German or French, no English.
Schengen, yes first word I will use, is small! But it was a fun visit for me because as a non-EU, non USA, non Canadian traveller I had to often apply and get Schengen visa to enter European countries and to see the place where this agreement is made is nice.
Schengen is a village on Mosel river side, other side of the river is Germany. There are couple of memorials, museum and gift shop for EU and Schengen agreement. And a very lovely charming fairy tale style tower 🙂
I’ll write my Schengen visit in more detail later on!
Actually I would also like to visit Little Swiss (Mullerthal region) and do the wine route (Mosel region) but weather was not good for these trips. Let me know if you do it, how was your experience 🙂
And here I also write about restaurants and cafes I visited in case you need reference places 🙂 Here is link to where to eat in Luxembourg
Overall it was a short but calming vacation for me. Let me know if you have questions or additions you would like to make for my Luxembourg guide !
In the meantime please enjoy this short video of yours truly Gezielciniz in Luxembourg
