How Europe’s ‘most boring nation’ turned a bucket listing favorite: Tiny principality has fairytale citadel and reigning prince – and you’ll stroll three international locations in in the future
The Liechtenstein Bovine Orchestra isn’t an official national music group, but should this minnow of a country’s many, many cows, who jingle-jangle the shiny gold bells around their necks all day long, fancy combining chewing the cud with a career on stage, I’d pay to hear their gentle melody.
In this famously tiny principality’s loftiest alpine resort, Malbun – a quiet, mountain-and-meadow mecca for walkers in summer and skiers in winter, the cowbell concerto is constant, whether you’re unpacking the car, nursing a local Brauhaus wheat beer on a sun-drenched terrace or willing your calf muscles on against gnarly gradients 2,000 metres up.
Dovetailed between Austria and Switzerland, with the German border also just 20 miles away, Liechtenstein stretches just 15 miles by four – in Europe, only The Vatican, Monaco and San Marino are tiddlier.
It’s prime ‘tick off’ territory for country-collecting tourists, who step over the border and snap a selfie to say they’ve been. Others linger longer to tackle the shortest axis on foot, which takes just a few hours and sees them depart with another achievement – walking three countries in one day.
One of Europe’s tiniest countries, Liechtenstein measures just 15 miles by four…but has plenty to shout about, including its fairytale-esque Vaduz Castle, where the principality’s royals reside
The country also boasts the densest network of hiking trails in Europe, with trails for every level of walker. Pictured: a hiker at sunrise on the country’s high alpine Fürstensteig Trail
It’s missing the point, of course, for this friendly pocket-size sovereign state deserves more of your attention. How long? A week if you’re looking to really dive in but our three-day family summer pitstop here in late July felt just right – and left us wanting a little more.
Being ‘the least visited country in Europe’ also means Liechtenstein is an absolute antidote to mass tourism and identikit brands. Not one single global hotel chain has pitched up here yet and you can’t get a Starbucks for love nor money…although the country’s lone branch of McDonald’s, in the capital, Vaduz, looks to be doing a brisk trade.
What it does have though is mountains galore – with 92 named peaks, plus vineyards and the densest network of hiking trails in Europe – more than 400km of them, with a dedicated 75km Liechtenstein Trail meandering through some of the best of it. Oh, and the Rhine ribbons through its western flank too.
Wherever you are, the views are a balm for the soul. There’s more than a whiff of fairytale about the scenery, with edelweiss-strewn pastures, soaring Rätikon range mountains and rustic timber houses filling the horizon.
The monarchy got the make-believe memo too; head of the Liechtenstein royal family, Prince Hans-Adam II, resides in a proper medieval castle, a 12th century turreted fortress with stellar views of both the town, the Rhine Valley and the Swiss Alps.
Malbun is a quiet ski and walking paradise for families looking for a more low-key alpine escape – with a chair lift taking you to the Sareis pinnacle, where a fantastic cafe awaits
Liechtenstein remained neutral in the Second World War; this Peace Chapel was erected in the 50s to show appreciation for being spared from conflict
The Mühleholz outdoor swimming pool Liechtenstein’s capital costs around £16 for a family of four to kick back after a morning hike
Alongside a ruling prince, Vaduz has a cathedral and a striking state parliament building (made from a million cream clinker brinks) but its population barely scrapes 6,000 – it’s about the size of a large village in the UK.
There’s no train station either but a fleet of yellow single-deckers deftly negotiate the mountain roads to cover 411 stops. We drove in, but many jet into Zurich and go by rail to Sargans, just over the Swiss border – from there, a bus gets you to Vaduz in 33 minutes.
Up in Malbun, in possession of a rough plan to spend three days hiking, we love just how quiet this forgotten alpine resort is even at summer’s height.
If you were a celebrity trying to disappear, you could easily send a lookalike decoy off to St Tropez and hide in this spirit-soothing village for a few days. There’s a sprinkling of hotels, a smattering of restaurants and a pretty little church with a story.
The natural-stone Catholic ‘Peace Chapel’ was built in the early 1950s to mark the country being spared from conflict in the Second World War. Liechtenstein, like Switzerland, remained neutral throughout.
Created in 1719 by Emperor Charles VI, who ruled the Austrian Habsburg monarch, the country now leans on Switzerland for the bureaucratic; with a shared currency and customs union. German is the official language but there’s a trio of local dialects.
There’s plenty of fun facts to be hewn out of this country too; the principality is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end false teeth and its 40,000-strong population belts out the national anthem, ‘Oben am jungen Rhein’, to the same tune as ‘God Save the King’.
Creating your own identity when you’re a doubly land-locked microstate can’t be easy but the Liechtensteiners we meet are laid-back, with an easy, offbeat humour. At our hotel, we’re gifted a branded tick remover, because why shouldn’t fending off Lime Disease be a marketing opportunity?
Good carbs: Käsknöpfle is a favourite dish – with small, dense dumplings cloaked in cheese and caramelised onions
Striking: Capital Vaduz may feel like a large village but it’s home to the country’s Parliament
We encounter a surprisingly rich undercurrent of creativity too, from the farm shop vending machines selling local honey, artisan pasta and fresh milk to a meadow ‘escape room’ and the ‘swing trail’, a two-hour mountain walk punctuated with 10 playground swings that come with sensational views.
Persuading a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old to lace up boots and swap mobiles for Mother Nature sparked some predictable moaning that eventually floated away on the breeze; because there is no AI photo that can match seeing the Alps with your own eyes.
Family hikes invite a carousel of different energies. On a three-hour looping wander from Malbun to the high, prominent ridge of Sareis, right at the top of the mountain, there are swathes of silent concentration interspersed with segments of animated chat about school, movies and music, as we distract ourselves from the grinding rise in terrain.
The well-trodden paths are fringed with swaying grasses, Alpine roses and trumpet-like gentian flowers. We stop to pat adorable donkeys and watch as a local brings a soaring golden eagle back to his leather glove. Ultimately though, it is the culinary reward at the summit that spurs this quartet of fair-weather walkers on.
My favourite meal this year might end up being the ham and cheese sandwich, served on freshly cut bread with one, fat splodge of mustard, that we devour at the Sareis café.
Liechtenstein’s favourite lunch, by the way, is Käsknöpfle, small but hearty dumplings cloaked in cheese and caramelised onions – human fuel for negotiating these landscapes.
To cool off after lunch, we take the chairlift back down and then yellow bus it to an impressive outdoor swimming pool – with snaking water chutes, diving boards and whirlpools – in Mühleholz for an afternoon under a summer sun that’s never too hot. At £5.50 for adults and £2.75 for under 16s, it’s a cheap way to kick back.
Miles of walking and carb-filled lunches is a soporific combination when you add in slow, winding bus rides – and cat-napping on public transport seems to be par for the course amongst locals and tourists.
Our mini adventure proves a masterclass in both why small is beautiful and how finding the forgotten can be great fun. Give me low-key Liechtenstein’s four-legged Alpine percussionists and their cowbells over the madding crowd elsewhere any day.
