Luxembourg City

Luxembourg City is small enough to cross on foot in half an hour and steep enough that you won't. The old town sits on a sandstone plateau; the Alzette and the Pétrusse run in gorges below it, and two whole neighbourhoods — Grund and Clausen — sit at the bottom, sixty metres under the shops. Almost everything worth doing here comes out of that drop, which is why a capital you would expect to finish by lunchtime takes a day.

One practical thing first. Since 2020 all public transport in the country has been free in second class — trams, buses and trains, visitors included, with nothing to buy and nothing to validate. Only first class on the trains still costs, at about €6 a day. The tram runs from the airport through Kirchberg to the main station, which covers most of what follows.

Start underground

The Bock Casemates are the obvious opener and they earn it. What you walk into was cut in 1745 by Austrian engineers: 1,100 square metres of gun galleries, a main passage 110 metres long, room once for fifty cannon and 1,200 soldiers. Hunt for the castle well, dropping 47 metres straight through the rock, and the crypt at the far end, where the foundations of Count Siegfried's castle of 963 were dug up in 1993.

Tickets are €11, or €9 if you are a student, and entry goes in groups every fifteen minutes with a 45-minute cap on the visit. It is cold down there in any weather. If the queue is bad, the Pétrusse Casemates at Place de la Constitution reopened in 2022 after five years of restoration and are quieter, with a guided route and a light-and-sound installation.

The walk between the two cities

The Chemin de la Corniche runs from the Bock promontory to the Saint-Esprit citadel on ramparts the Spanish and French built in the seventeenth century. A defensive wall has a view here because most of it was knocked down: the path had steep stairs and a loopholed parapet until 1870, and after the fortress was dismantled both were taken back so people could see out. What you see is the Grund directly below and the Rham plateau opposite.

Getting back up is the good part. The Grund lift has run since March 1987, 45 metres inside the rock, reached from the valley by a 55-metre tunnel hung with artwork since 1998 to stop it feeling like a service corridor. It is free, and it runs from 6.30am to 2am — until 4am on Friday and Saturday nights, which matters more than it sounds if you end up drinking down there.

The other is the Pfaffenthal panoramic lift, a glass box climbing 71 metres out of the Alzette valley to Pescatore park, with an enclosed footbridge at the top. Also free, open 5.45am to 1am, and out of service from 9am on the first Monday of every month — the one detail to check before you build a morning around it.

Art in odd containers

Mudam sits on the Kirchberg plateau in a building I. M. Pei finished in 2006 on the site of Fort Thüngen, whose stone walls of 1732 still stand around it. The collection is contemporary rather than modern by accident of budget: the country had none to start with and could not afford to buy one, so it bought living artists instead. Entry is €10, free if you are under 21 or a student with a card, and free for everyone on Wednesdays from 6pm to 9pm. Fifty metres away, the Musée Dräi Eechelen in the restored fort is free all the time.

One correction, because it is still on almost every list of what to do here. Am Tunnel — the free art gallery the state savings bank ran from 1993 in a 350-metre service corridor fifteen metres under rue Sainte-Zithe, with a permanent room for Edward Steichen — has closed permanently. Guides and blog posts still send people to the lift on level -4. They are out of date, and we would rather tell you that than pad the list.

Under a bridge

The Pont Adolphe was built between 1900 and 1903 and carries road, trams and pavements 42 metres above the Pétrusse. In 2017 a second deck was hung underneath it on cables: 154 metres of steel, four metres wide, slung between the arches for people on foot and on bikes. Ramps take you on at Place de Metz by the station and Place de Bruxelles on the city side, and you cross with the arch curving overhead. It takes five minutes and costs nothing.

Do not plan a walk along the river below it: phase two of the Pétrusse renaturation started in spring 2025 and runs about two and a half years, and the paths beside the water from the old Bourbon lock to rue d'Anvers are shut while it happens.

Eating

For the national dish, Mousel's Cantine on the Montée de Clausen does Judd mat Gaardebounen — smoked pork collar with broad beans — and pours Clausel beer alongside it. There has been a restaurant on the site since 1825; it is small and it fills, so phone ahead. Service is 11.45–2 and 6–10, and Sunday is lunch only.

Luxembourg is expensive and lunch is where that lands. Two cheaper habits: the Stater Maart takes over Place Guillaume II every Wednesday and Saturday morning until 1.30pm, and Chiche!, a small Lebanese chain that exists to employ refugees and migrants, does falafel and hummus for very little.

After dark

Rotondes is two circular railway sheds from 1877, 52 metres across and 15 tall, each built to service eighteen steam locomotives; they were listed in 1991 and reopened as a cultural centre in 2015. The north shed is a concert hall with a bar, and there is something on year-round, and in summer the Congés Annulés festival — 24 July to 20 August in 2026 — puts something on almost every night, a fair share of it free.

Late August is the Schueberfouer, and if your dates cross it, go. John the Blind founded it on 20 October 1340 as a livestock market and it never quite stopped: the 684th edition runs 21 August to 9 September 2026 on the Glacis, opening at 5pm on the first day with the Ham an Hämel procession, 214 stands deep. It runs from midday to 1am.

One last thing tied to the calendar: the Grand Ducal Palace is the Grand Duke's office rather than his home — the family lives at Berg Castle — and it opens only in high summer, 18 July to 30 August in 2026, on 75-minute tours from the tourist office on Place Guillaume II for €18.