Getting to Liechtenstein is not easy: with a population of just 40,000 and surrounded by the mountains, there is no airport – heck, I did not even see a train station. And most people who come to visit other countries nearby, such as Switzerland and Germany, do just that, without thinking about the tiny country nestled in between them. In fact, I visited both Switzerland and Germany in my quest to check Liechtenstein off of my list.
I first flew to Zurich, then took a 2-hour train to the border town of Buchs, and then took a short (no seriously, only 5 minutes!) bus ride over to Schaan, the closest town in Liechtenstein. From there it’s only another five minutes on the bus until Vaduz, the capital. Of course much of Liechtenstein can be seen in a day or an afternoon, but you all know by now that that is no longer my style of traveling, so naturally I gave myself four full days there.
Day 1: I spent the whole first day in Vaduz. The castle overlooks the city from a high mountain ridge (unfortunately is it not open for visits because the Prince of Liechtenstein lives there with his family), and Städtle street, a lovely pedestrian street and also the main street of the city, has everything from museums to tourist shops and restaurants. I went to the National Museum (history), the Kunstmuseum (art), the Postal Museum (both stamps and postcards), the Cathedral of St. Florin, and the Treasure House, as well as saw the famous Red House and the Parliament building from the outside. I also took a ride on the CityTrain, which lasted for about 45 minutes and went all over the city.
Day 2: I went to three different villages, the first being Malbun, which is famous for its ski resorts. One of the ski lifts (Sareis) is still functioning in the summer months, and it went from being 70 degrees and sunny at the bottom to 55 and foggy at the top! I still managed to see some spectacular views before continuing on to Burg Gutenberg, which featured a castle on a grapevine-covered hill set next to some mountains. (Honestly, most things in Liechtenstein were set next to some mountains – beautiful!) Burg Gutenberg was in the south of the country, and the next village I went to, Schellenberg, was in the north, and the bus ride took about 40 minutes, and that included me having to changes buses halfway through. Schellenberg has two different sets of castle ruins (Untere burg and Obere burg), about 30 minutes apart, and both requiring a small amount of hiking.
Day 3: I moved to an Airbnb in Triesenberg, which is up in the mountains (about halfway from Vaduz to Malbun), and was rewarded with picturesque views from my bedroom window. After settling in at the Airbnb, I went to the center of the village to the Walsermuseum, which was unfortunately only in German, and to see the Church of St. Josef.
Day 4: On my last full day in Liechtenstein, having already seen all the things on my list (what a satisfying feeling that is), I decided to find an alpine lake to go swimming in, and discovered I was only a 10-minute bus ride from Steg. When I arrived, I was one of three people there, and the other two were fishing at the far end of the lake. When I say the water was freezing, it was FREEZING, like the kind of water that after you jump in to, you can’t breathe because your body is frozen with cold. I managed to dive in not one, not two, but three times, and absolutely loved it. There’s just something about jumping into cold water on a hot summer day that is 100% lovely.
I must also mention that I bought a 3-day Liechtenstein tourist pass, which included entry to the museums, free public transport, the CityTrain, and a host of other “gifts”, such as a coffee from Demmel Coffee, Liechtenstein’s own coffee brand, a magnet and cup of grape juice or wine from one of the country’s tourist shops, a passport stamp, and a handmade ceramic cup from the country’s ceramic factory, and boy was it worth it! The pass was 25 Swiss francs for 1 day, 30 for 2 days, and 35 for 3 days; the Swiss franc is a tad bit stronger than the euro.
After having traveled to 54 countries, I can say that Liechtenstein has been one of my favorites, and that is really saying something, because when people ask me what my favorite countries or trips have been, I normally cannot choose! But I will definitely be saying Liechtenstein from now on. To get home, I took another 2-hour train ride to Munich before catching a flight to Madrid…and of course seeing Taylor Swift one final time before heading home as well!
😉