Explore Luxembourg: An All-in-One Travel Guide
This blog post contains affiliate links which helps to support this blog. If you choose to purchase through the link, this doesn't add any additional cost to you.
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This blog post contains affiliate links which helps to support this blog. If you choose to purchase through the link, this doesn't add any additional cost to you. 〰️
Luxembourg, the richest country in the world based on GDP per capita, is a small country that not many people may know about. Despite its size, the country wow-ed us with its scenery and culture. In this blog post, I’ll be spilling the details about everything you’ll need to know before travelling to Luxembourg and answer some questions that I had to Google myself when I was there!
Table of Contents:
How many days are enough for Luxembourg?
What is the best way to move around?
Do you recommend any hotels?
What are the top sights in Luxembourg?
Common FAQs
What currency do they use?
Is it better to carry cash or card around?
What language do they speak in Luxembourg?
Is tap water drinkable?
How many days are enough for Luxembourg?
If you’re planning to visit just the city, you can just spend a day trip and be on your way to your next destination.
I would recommend adding another day if you’re interested in visiting the nearby castles as well, especially since the transport to get there is free!
Overall, I would recommend spending 2 days 1 night in Luxembourg.
What is the best way to move around?
A great thing about Luxembourg is that public transport is free ever since 2020. This includes bus, trams and the trains all around the country!
At first I couldn’t believe it as well, but you don’t need to get any ticket at all. Just hop on and get off at your destination. The only time you’ll need to purchase a ticket is if you’re planning to sit in 1st class on the trains.
Luxembourg city is also very walkable, even when visiting the Grund. However, the busses are very convenient to move around the city with and are usually on time.
In terms of navigation apps, I like to use Citymapper and Google Maps to check the best way to get to my destination especially when making a day trip outside the city.
Do you recommend any hotels?
I stayed a couple nights at the Grand Hotel Cravat (affiliate link) while I was in Luxembourg and thought it was great.
The staff were friendly, the hotel is located a couple minutes walk to the city centre and to the bus stop, and the rooms were spacious and rustic. Although I try to reduce my cost where possible, but I still try to choose hotels that are well-located and most importantly safe and clean!
⏰ Duration: 3D2N
💷 Price: £147.28 per person*
*Included breakfast and they let me to print some stuff for free!
It was also easy to get to and fro the hotel via bus despite having a large suitcase with us since we didn’t need to keep changing busses and the bus stop was basically right next to the hotel.
The only thing to note is that they require €250 as a deposit when you’re checking in, and will cancel it upon check out.
What are the top sights in Luxembourg?
I’ll be highlighting the few interesting sights that I’ve visited but if you’re keen to explore a little more while learning about the history of each location in Luxembourg City, I recommend getting a self-guided tour (affiliate link) and going at your own pace.
I recommend getting the Digital Self-Guided Walking / Bike Tour (affiliate link) from GetYourGuide for only £5 and splitting the guide between your whole group.
I’ll be starting with what you must see in Luxembourg City. Yeap, the city is named the same as the country.
Grund
Grund is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1994 and often referred to as “a village within a city”.
It’s located on a whole other level compared to the main city area, which you can access via walking or using a public lift. I found it quite confusing to find the entrance to head downwards, so I recommend using the public lift instead!
Public lift located at the Ascenseur Elevator Plateau St. Esprit Grund
If you go slightly past the lift, you can also get a nice panoramic view of the Grund which I highly recommend taking a peek at before going down.
Once you’re in the area, there’s a couple of places you could visit:
Spanish Gate (also the Grund entrance for those on foot)
Grand Ducal Palace
The Grand Ducal Palace is located in the city centre and it is the official residence of the Grand Duke. In the summer, they offer 75-minutes guided tours (I assume when the family is off to their vacation home 😂).
One thing I really love about Luxembourg was learning about their culture, specifically the social hierarchy in the past.
If you know me personally, you’ll know that I’m obsessed with the historical regression genre in mangas, which will typically cover power plays in a similar type of social hierarchy. The buildings and the information they shared about this aspect just fit into the stories I’ve read which makes me love this place more even though it might seem really random.
For the rest of the regular tourist, the guide tells you about the history of the ducal family and get a full view of the changing of guards!
Luxembourg City History Museum
If you want to have deep dive into the history of Luxembourg and also have access to a panoramic view of Luxembourg City, then you should head over to the city history museum.
🎟️ Ticket Price: €5 per person (Adults)
⏰ Estimated Duration: 1 hour
Make sure you also keep the ticket since it also provides free entrance to nearby partnering museums too!
The museum has a total of 5 floors where the 4th and 5th floor is reserved for the exhibitions that changes from time to time. In the main section of the musuem, it talks about how Luxembourg’s fortress fell and rebuilt over time, how they evolved into a major financial centre, and other interesting bits and pieces of their culture.
Vianden Castle
The city and the castle may not be on the UNESCO World Heritage list, but were considered as “remarkable cultural elements which deserves protection and preservation.“ It’s a great day trip idea for those staying in Luxembourg city, and only takes an hour to get here via train.
🎟️ Ticket Price: €10 per person (Adults)
⏰ Estimated Duration: 1.5 hour
You can also pre-book your ticket on GetYourGuide and skip the queue (affiliate link):
In the castle, there are signboards around the area labelling where you should go using numbers. The information boards also includes an English description which was a happy surprise since the signboards typically don’t include English at all.
Once you’re done venturing around the castle, I recommend exploring the town. If you’ve been to south of France before, it’s giving a similar vibe to Moustiers-Sainte-Marie but less located-on-the-side-of-a-cliff kind of situation.
I know i shouldn’t compare but I can’t help myself! All i’m saying is that it’s a nice little town to spend a couple hours at.
If you’re looking for something to eat, I recommend skipping the cafe in the castle and head straight to Cafe Du Pont in town. It’s delicious and the portion is generous. We ordered a main and a starter and it was more than enough to feed 2 people!
Another thing you can do is going on the chair lift. It was closed when I was there but it provides a nice panoramic view of the town and gives you access to couple more restaurants as well.
🎟️ Ticket Price: €9 per person (Adults Return Ticket)
Common FAQs
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They use euros!
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I recommend just using your card for everything, since every restaurant and stall I’ve been to had no problem with accepting card and Apple Pay payments. I had one weird occasion that only accepted credit cards instead of debit cards though.
If you’re a student or expat staying in the UK, I recommend using Monzo when travelling since I found that it provides better exchange rates in general!
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Their official language is Luxembourgish, a blend between German and French. This is probably due to their history and location.
On the signs, you’ll see mostly French on the sign boards and what I assume to be either Luxembourgish or German (I have to guess since I can’t read or understand it)
You can still get by visiting the country with some guessing as an English speaker. That’s how we got through it! All you gotta know is that “Ausgang” is exit and “Eingang” is entrance.
In tourist attractions, they typically do include English usually for information boards (i.e. the boards telling you the history of a place).
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No! I read online that it was, but I found out the truth the hard way.
A waiter tried explaining to me that the tap water quality was really bad when I requested tap water in a restaurant, but I thought they were just trying to sell me their still water at a higher price. Oh, how I wish I believed him.
I spent two days boiling tap water and filling up my bottle with it. After a while, I realised a distinct taste from the water, saw some random “flakes” and later got food poisoning.
Learn from my mistake, don’t drink the tap water!
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May your passports be full, and see you in the next post!
