Most trips are the capital plus one direction. Luxembourg City earns a full day: the casemates in the rock, the Chemin de la Corniche and the valley quarters below. Then go north to the Éislek for castles and forest at Vianden and Clervaux, east to the Mullerthal for sandstone gorges out of Echternach, or southeast to the Moselle wine road. Three nights covers the capital and one region. Five covers it all: nowhere is much more than an hour and a half away, and transport is free.
Fun fact
Luxembourg made all public transport free on 1 March 2020, the first country to do so. Second-class trains, trams and buses need no ticket, for residents or visitors. It was aimed at commuters: about 233,000 cross in every working day from France, Germany and Belgium, against 690,959 residents.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityFinance is the centre of the economy and Kirchberg is full of glass, but that plateau is one district of one city. The country around it is mostly forest, farmland and river valley, with a castle every twenty minutes or so. Visitors who see only the office quarter miss the rest.
The realityThe capital holds a fraction of the people and none of the landscape. The Éislek is the high, wooded Ardennes. The Mullerthal is a sandstone maze with a long trail. The Moselle is wine country with its own appellation. The Minett is old steel country, a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 2020.
The realityFrench is official and the most used in writing and shops, but Luxembourgish is the national language and what people speak to each other. German is the third, used by much of the press. Add Portuguese, Italian and English, and the language of any conversation is settled at its start.
The realityYou can, and you will see the old town, the casemates and nothing else. The map says a day is enough. The sights are spread to the four corners and the Ardennes roads are slow. Two nights is when a second region becomes possible.
How to behave
- Open in French or English and switch if you are corrected. Trying two words of Luxembourgish is welcomed and never expected. What does land badly is assuming German in the south or French in the north as though the choice carries no history.
- Shake hands on arrival and departure, including with people you have just been introduced to in a group. Close friends greet with three light cheek kisses, starting on the left.
- Punctuality is taken literally. Arriving at the agreed minute for a dinner or a meeting is the norm, and being late without a message reads as careless.
- Do not use the word Belgian, French or German as a shorthand for Luxembourgish. The country spent the nineteenth century being partitioned between its neighbours and the twentieth being occupied by one of them, and the national motto translates as "we want to remain what we are".
- Sunday is quiet by law and by habit. Most shops close, and noise rules on garden machinery and drilling are enforced in residential streets, so plan the day around walking, museums or a long lunch.
- Tipping is rounding up. Service is included in the bill, and five to ten percent for a good meal is generous.
Famous Luxembourgish faces
Vicky Krieps
Désirée Nosbusch
Michel Rodange
Hugo Gernsback
Jean-Claude Juncker
Andy Schleck
Edward Steichen
Robert Schuman
Grand Duke Guillaume V
Grand Duke Henri
Charly Gaul
Nicolas Frantz
Must-try Luxembourgish food
Judd mat Gaardebounen
The national dish: smoked pork collar sliced over broad beans, with boiled potatoes.
Bouneschlupp
Green bean soup with potato, onion and bacon, thick enough for lunch.
Träipen
Black pudding with apple sauce, mash and horseradish, eaten from All Saints to Lent.
Gromperekichelcher
Fried potato fritters with onion and parsley. The smell of the Schueberfouer.
Kachkéis
Cooked cheese spread warm on bread with mustard. Hard-times food, now nostalgia.
Bouchée à la reine
Puff pastry filled with chicken and mushrooms in cream. The celebration plate.
F'rell am Rèisleck
Trout in butter, finished in Riesling, cream and shallots. The Moselle on the plate.
Rieslingspaschtéit
Meat pie set in Riesling aspic and sliced. Pâté en croûte with the Moselle's grape.
Éisleker Ham
Northern ham, marinated for weeks and smoked for days, served cold with chips.
Quetschentaart
Damson tart on buttery shortcrust with cinnamon. The late-summer bakery order.
Crémant de Luxembourg
Bottle-fermented sparkling wine under a 1991 appellation. The default toast.
Riesling and Elbling
The Moselle's still whites: mineral Riesling, and light, sharp Elbling from Roman times.