The most beautiful corners of Luxembourg

Luxembourg has scenery you don’t expect from a country known for its offices. There’s a capital that leans out over a ravine, a forest of rocks that looks lifted from an adventure novel, and northern valleys where a river nearly loops right round a village. This ranking is purely about looks, about what I’d point a camera at. For places worth it for their history or what’s inside, head to the ranking of places to visit in Luxembourg.

In the capital, the ravines steal the show

Luxembourg City was built on a rocky spur hemmed in by the Alzette and the Pétrusse, and its beauty is all in the drops. The Chemin de la Corniche proves it. It runs along the top of the ramparts, and wherever you stop you’ve got the Grund, the roofs of Neumünster Abbey and the river beneath you. I give it 9.7 because it’s free, always open, and I can’t think of another European capital with a view like this right in the centre.

The city’s second great frame is the Pétrusse valley with the Adolphe Bridge, an 85 m stone arch. The third is the Pfaffenthal, with the Red Bridge crossing overhead at 74 m. From the panoramic lift you take in both in a minute.

The Mullerthal, the view nobody sees coming

If one place changes people’s idea of the country, it’s the Mullerthal. Oddly shaped sandstone, passages barely wide enough for one person, moss on everything and, in the middle of it, the Schiessentümpel waterfall with its little bridge. The regional tourist office says it’s their most photographed spot, and I believe them. Near Echternach there’s the Wolfsschlucht, the Wolf’s Gorge, 40 m deep. The whole area falls within the Mëllerdall Natur- & Geopark, a UNESCO Global Geopark since April 2022.

My advice here is about timing. Early in the day or midweek, you have the forest to yourself; on a Sunday lunchtime you’ll be sharing the bridge with a crowd.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Vianden before prices climb.

Castles that look best from outside

In the Éislek, the castles are the postcards. Vianden wins when you see it from above, and the easy way is the chairlift, which rises to 440 m above the valley. Bourscheid, on the other hand, makes sense from the viewpoints opposite, because its eleven towers take up the whole hilltop. And Esch-sur-Sûre is my favourite in the north, a village the river almost surrounds, with its castle ruin on top and free to wander.

A little further west, the Belvédère Burfelt, a platform opened in 2016, juts out 70 m above the Upper Sûre lake. Visit Éislek lists the region’s viewpoints on its website, from Runtschelt at Kaundorf to the Kinneksknäppchen above Brandenbourg. I bring them together, alongside viewpoints elsewhere, in the best viewpoints in Luxembourg.

The red south hardly anyone photographs

The Minett, the Terres Rouges of the south, never makes the postcards, which strikes me as a mistake. The old open-cast mines have become nature reserves, and Haard-Hesselsbierg-Staebierg, between Dudelange, Kayl and Rumelange, covers 600 hectares and is the country’s largest according to Visit Luxembourg. The reddish earth, the old quarry faces and the woodland that has grown back over them make pictures unlike anything else in Luxembourg. For the industrial contrast, add the Belval blast furnaces and their platform 40 m up.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Vianden before prices climb.

What about the Moselle?

It’s the gentlest landscape in the country, and I like it best in autumn when the vines turn yellow. My favourite spot is the Koeppchen at Wormeldange, a very steep vineyard with the St-Donat chapel on top, in the village the tourist board calls the Riesling capital. To drive from one wine village to the next, the route is in the Luxembourg Moselle wine route.

The hour matters more than the place

Most of these spots are free, so the real cost is time and light. Luxembourg is no sun trap, with 1,803 hours a year according to MeteoLux, and in December the average falls to 41.9 hours for the entire month. That’s why I’d come between May and September for long landscape shots and save autumn for the forests, when September still manages nearly 175 hours of sun. If villages interest you more than views, there’s a separate ranking of the prettiest villages in Luxembourg.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Vianden and choose by the reviews.

A car frees you from timetables: search car hire in Luxembourg on DiscoverCars and compare companies.

So you do not pay over the odds, look at trains, coaches and flights to Luxembourg on Omio and pick the one that suits you.