Big Adventures In The Small Country Of Luxembourg 🇱🇺

Jul 31

5 min read

Your first thought may be, "Where is Luxembourg?" and that would be completely appropriate.

Luxemborug is located between France, Belgium, and Germany. To compare it to the united states, it is smaller than the state of Rhode Island.

Most people treat Luxembourg as a quick day trip, and to be fair, to do Luxembourg City that's about all you need. However, we wanted to really get out of the city because there are a lot of awesome hikes, and since this is Europe, castles!

Also if you haven't caught on by now, we like to do our own thing that most people dont do, fly through the touristy things and have some pretty unique experiences.

Getting There

Luxembourg does have an airport but it is small and expensive to fly into. So we flew into Brussles South Charleroi Airport which is about 45 minutes from Brussles, and about 2.5 hour car from Luxembourg.

This gave us an opportunity to take a full-day detour in Brussels and see the city. To be straightforward, we weren't very impressed with Brussels, but we also know one day isn't a fair assessment, so we will go back eventually. We just did our normal thing of walking around the entire city. Also, their most picturesque square, The Grand-Place, was full of stadium seating and scaffolding because of an event that happens in July there.

From Brussels it was a nice easy 3.5 hour train to Luxembourg City.

Transportation

One of the biggest pros of going to Luxemborug is the public transportation. Its on time, clean, and free. Yes 100% totally free just get on and off where you want, no scanning tapping or getting tickets.

Traveling in Europe, a lot rides on public transport, being able to figure it out and the cost. So having places with such easy transport (and did I mention free?) is a huge win.

For all of our adventures outside the city however we did rent a car for two days.

Day 1- Berdorf

On our first day trip, we ventured out to Berdorf and after our hike, stopped in Echternach.

The hike was cool, not very hard, under 3 miles and only 630 ft in elevation gain. Some very unique aspects of this hike because you are in a forest but there are cliffs everywhere. This is also part of a much longer hike which is a little hard with a toddler. We only took our small carrier so it could fit in the suitcase, not the most heavy duty one that forces us to put it in a car seat bag.

This hike took you above and below all of these cliffs that were full of rock climbers. We also had a bit of slot canyons and forest. Lots of variety on this hike and it was only about a 30 minute drive from the city.

Another bonus of this, just at the start of the hike is a real cool playground and a great place to eat and have a drink post hike. And can you guess what I got to eat?

Schnitzel and a german beer.

After the hike, we went over to Echternach. It seems to be a pretty popular place with a main street lined with lots of places to eat, but we didn't spend long here since we had just eaten and would rather head back to the city and walk around there.

Day 2- Vianden

Today's hike takes us to Vianden and one of the most picturesque castles we have come across. The hike itself was pretty easy, only 5 miles and less than 1K elevation. The little town of Vianden added to its charm with the castle up on the hill and a river running at the bottom with restaurants along. This was also only 30-40 minutes outside of the main city.

The views we got during the hike weren't all that special, some nice fields and Landon really wanted to keep picking flowers. The view of the castle was absolutely spectacular, but you don't have to do the hike at all; the lookout is right along the road. That's kind of bittersweet. While it's nice that more people get to enjoy the view, it's also nice to do a hike and be rewarded with an even better view.

The town itself has such a classic European feel to it and it did not get very busy at all. Only a handful of places to eat at, so we picked one along the river that seemed to specialize in, you guessed it, schnitzel. This place had all sorts of variations and toppings with their schnitzel. I got one that was almost like a cordon bleu, topped with ham and cheese essentially, while Liz got one with mushrooms.

And of course, washed down with a German beer, this time a rose Hefeweizen which was fantastic.

Day 3- Luxembourg City

The day we fully explored Luxembourg city.

Each day, after our hike, we returned well before dinnertime so we could shower and explore small areas of the city. But this time, we really got to go down into the gorge. The city has a river that runs deep down a gorge, with the city on both sides and down in the gorge itself.

One would think that it would make it hard to navigate and walk up steep hills. Another thing that makes Luxembourg so amazing is how accessible it is. At different places throughout the gorge, there are elevators that will take you up to the top of it, and even a funicular you can ride.

We did the walks downhill in two different spots because that took us to old fortresses and castles. It's quite amazing how Luxembourg has preserved so much, and they have even rebuilt in the same original styles, mixing old and new. It makes the ambiance of the city that much better.

We stayed at Melia Luxembourg which is in the north eastern part of the city and is on the othe side of the gorge. Directly behind that hotel took us along this path and through this fotress you can fully explore.

Down in the Gorge, we saw some more awesome sites from below, including fortress walls and a cathedral. There is also a lively street here where we ate one night.

After we found a hidden elevator that took us up to the main city right along the edge of the old town, which is the much busier area with tons of restaurants, shops, and such. There are some really good places to eat here, and one of the evenings they had a stage set up in a square where a high school band played, which Landon loved.

Going a bit further on the western side of the downtown area, there is a long park, and in that park was possibly the coolest playground we have ever been to. Like seriously, child me is very envious of these kids. It was basically a life-sized pirate ship in the sand with slides, ropes, and a water play area. So we went there at least twice.

We did a bit of wandering, moved south to what seemed like the financial district, had a good lunch, and enjoyed more Gorge views.

This is a great city to just wander around. Just pick a direction that looks appealing and go. There are so many things to see: historical structures, great places to eat and drink. And no matter where you are, you can just jump on any public transport for free and go to the next place.

Even the Gorge would normally be intimidating because of fear of steps or hiking up the hill, but there are several elevators, one of which is completely glass so you can get panoramic views.