The country where the bus is always free
Here's the trick that makes Luxembourg a backpacking destination rather than a banking layover: since 2020, all public transport in the entire country is free. Every train, every bus, every tram — no ticket, no app, no tap-in. The Grand Duchy is only 82 km top to bottom, so with a hostel bed and a bakery habit you can see castles, river gorges and half-timbered Ardennes towns for less than a single night out in Amsterdam.
We gave it five days in early June, which is the sweet spot: forests fully green, trails dry, and the summer coach crowds not yet arrived. September works just as well.
Day 1–2: Luxembourg City
The capital is built around a plunging river canyon, and the best free thing in the country after the buses is simply walking the Chemin de la Corniche — 'Europe's most beautiful balcony' — along the old ramparts above the Alzette. Below, the Grund quarter sits at the bottom of the gorge like a village that wandered into a capital city. Tour the Bock Casemates (€8), a honeycomb of 17th-century tunnels bored into the cliff, then take the free glass elevator down to Pfaffenthal at dusk. The youth hostel in the gorge itself charges around €30 with breakfast; food is the budget-killer, so do what we did and live off €2 bakery quiches and supermarket picnics.
Day 3: Echternach and the Mullerthal
Bus 110 or the train-bus combination gets you to Echternach in under an hour. This is Luxembourg's oldest town, wrapped around a Benedictine abbey, and it's the gateway to the Mullerthal — marketed as 'Little Switzerland,' though it's really more like a sandstone maze with moss for wallpaper. Walk the E1 loop to the Wolfsschlucht, a crevice barely shoulder-wide where the temperature drops ten degrees, and on to the Schiessentümpel, a small triple waterfall under a stone footbridge that appears on every Luxembourg postcard for good reason. The full Mullerthal Trail runs 112 km, but the day loops from Echternach give you the best rock scenery in four hours.
Day 4: Vianden
Buses via Diekirch drop you in Vianden, a steep little town stacked along the Our river below the country's showpiece: a fully restored medieval castle draped over the ridgeline like something drawn for a fantasy novel. Entry is about €10, and the walk up through the old town lanes is half the pleasure. Victor Hugo lived here in exile in 1871; his house on the bridge is now a small museum. In summer a single-seat chairlift creaks up the opposite hillside for the classic across-the-valley castle shot. Sleep at the hostel below the castle walls (about €28) and have the town nearly to yourself once the day-trippers leave — evening is when Vianden actually feels medieval.
Day 5: Clervaux and the deep Ardennes
Ride north to Clervaux, a white-walled abbey town folded into a tight river bend. The reason to come is inside the castle: The Family of Man, Edward Steichen's legendary 1955 photography exhibition, permanently installed in its final home and inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register. It's a genuinely moving hour, 503 photographs about being human, hanging in a quiet Ardennes village. If you have the legs, the Escapardenne Lee Trail links Clervaux toward Esch-sur-Sûre, whose ruined tower ring sits inside an almost complete loop of the Sûre river — the prettiest village in the country and the right full stop for the trip.
The numbers
Five days cost us roughly €45 a day: €28–32 for hostel beds, €12–15 for food, €0 for every kilometre travelled. Luxembourg borders France, Belgium and Germany, and trains onward to Trier or Metz are cheap. Come with low expectations and a rail-map screenshot; leave having hiked one of Western Europe's most underrated corners for free.
