Things to do in Luxembourg City

Landmark · Ville Haute, above the Grund

A rampart walkway along the old fortifications, looking down into the Alzette valley — often called the most beautiful balcony in Europe.

Local tip: Walk it at dusk and then take the stairs or the Grund lift down into the valley. The city reads completely differently from the bottom of it.

Landmark · Bock promontory

Seventeen kilometres of tunnels cut into the rock beneath the old fortress, UNESCO-listed along with the old quarters.

Local tip: Go for the tunnels, stay for the view from the Bock. In winter the casemates close — check before making the trip.

Neighborhood · North-east across the Red Bridge

The modern quarter of EU institutions, banks, the Philharmonie and the Mudam contemporary art museum, connected by tram.

Local tip: Mudam sits inside a Pei-designed building on the old fort's foundations, and its café is one of the better quiet lunch spots in the city.

Neighborhood · In the Alzette valley below the old town

The riverside lower town of stone houses, breweries and bars, reachable by a free public lift from the Pfaffenthal.

Local tip: The Pfaffenthal panoramic lift is free and takes seventy-one metres of the climb out of your evening. Locals use it constantly and visitors almost never find it.

Nature · 35 minutes east

Sandstone gorges, moss and beech woodland along a well-marked long trail — 'Little Switzerland', and the country's best walking.

Local tip: The Schiessentümpel waterfall is the postcard, but the narrow rock passages on the Mullerthal Trail's second stage are the reason to go. Free trains get you to Echternach.

Nature · Directly below the city centre

A recently reworked park in the gorge beneath the viaducts, following the Pétrusse stream through the middle of the capital.

Local tip: You can walk from the station district to the Grund entirely below street level, under the bridges, and barely see another person. In a city this dense it is a genuinely surprising piece of quiet.