Hiking in Liechtenstein, the walks I'd choose and how to pick yours

Plenty of people come to Liechtenstein for the passport stamp and leave without realising they’ve been in one of the most walkable corners of the Alps. Half the country is mountain, the buses climb to 1,600 metres and the paths are waymarked with almost Swiss precision. Here’s how the routes stack up and which I’d pick for your level.

A country made for walking

The tourist board talks of 400 km of footpaths across 160 km² and summits of up to about 2,600 metres, and claims the densest network in Europe. I couldn’t check that comparison, so I’ll stick to the figure. To find your way, watch the colours. According to the Alpine Club, the country’s mountaineering club, yellow signs mean an ordinary footpath, red-striped ones a mountain path and blue-striped ones an alpine route, the kind that needs hands and a cool head.

The mountains have two front doors. Malbun, at the head of the high valley, on bus 21, and Gaflei, above Triesenberg, on bus 22. Both routes carry bikes in summer. A quieter third option is the Lawena valley above Triesen, a bowl-shaped alp whose hut stands at 1,525 m.

The five headline hikes

The tourist board singles out five. The Fürstensteig with the Drei Schwestern starts at Gaflei, covers 11.9 km in five and a half hours and crosses protected rock passages above the Rhine valley. The Princess Gina Trail is a loop from Malbun along the Augstenberg ridge and past the Pfälzerhütte, 11.9 km in five hours. The Schönberg, 2,104 metres, is a 12.5 km, four-and-a-half-hour loop that the official site describes as an easy-going climb, with flowers in June and July. The Naafkopf, 2,570 metres, is where three countries meet; in a single day it’s 19 km and eight and a half hours, so most people climb it from the Pfälzerhütte at dawn. And Route 66 joins the first two over three days, hut to hut.

Walking across the whole country

The Liechtenstein Trail is a different beast. It isn’t after summits but after all eleven municipalities, and the tourist board describes it as about 75 km in five stages and two loops, one in Malbun and one in Vaduz. It’s usually walked south to north, from Balzers to Schaanwald, but you can start in any village, and an app called LIstory tells stories along the way. I cover it in my guide to the Liechtenstein Trail.

Easy walks and family routes

If you’re not after climbing, there’s room for you too. The tourist board suggests the ten-swing trail in Malbun, the pushchair-friendly walk from the Gänglesee lake at Steg to the Valüna alp, the Sass path with its little lake and the Sägaweiher loop, with a waterfall, in the Nendeln woods.

Autumn, the season nobody mentions

In September and October I’d head down to the valley. The tourist board suggests five autumn strolls, and three stand out for me. The Historischer Höhenweg runs 16 km along the Eschnerberg in the Unterland, past archaeological sites and in short stages. In Triesen, a path through the Röfiwald leads to the Badegg viewpoint and the remains of the old Vogelsang spa. And the Ruggeller Riet, some 90 hectares of protected fen at the northern tip, is walked on the flat. They’re afternoon walks, with no early start and no anxious glances at the sky.

What should I know before setting off?

Three things. First, money. The Pfälzerhütte and the Gafadurahütte only take cash, and there are no cash machines up there. Second, cows. The tourist board asks walkers to keep well away from cows with calves, keep dogs on a short lead and leave pasture gates as they found them. Third, weather. Snow can linger on the Fürstensteig into late spring, and summer storms roll in fast on a ridge. Fill your bottle before setting off, because tap water in Liechtenstein is safe, although a fountain marked «Kein Trinkwasser» isn’t. If your dog is coming too, the rules for buses and the Sareis chairlift are in Liechtenstein with a dog.

Guides and where to sleep

If you’d rather have company, the tourist board lists mountain guides with their qualifications. Its winter pages name three of them, Nikolaus Büchel, Katharina Link and Thomas Tichy, all qualified as international mountain leaders, which tells you guided walking here is a serious trade. To sleep up high there’s the Pfälzerhütte, the Gafadurahütte and guesthouses such as the MATU at Gaflei or the one on Sareis, all covered in mountain huts. If you’re coming in summer, I round things off in Liechtenstein in summer.