I've been to Liechtenstein!

In this article you can find my best tips for getting around Liechtenstein.

Getting there
 The easiest way is to take a flight to Zurich (ZRH). From the airport take a train to Zurich main train station - Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Zürich HB). From Zurich you can take a train to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. It takes some time until you find out how the train system works in here but eventually those ticket machines will become your best friend. If you’re not sure about anything before you buy your ticket go to the ticket office, located on the right hand side, straight after you go through the main entrance (Bahnhofstrasse) with the huge arc.

A very helpful to you might be also the official website of Swiss Rail.
Note: If you’re planning to stay in Switzerland for a while you should know that exploring the country by train is a wonderful idea but you should also know that is REALY expensive so it’s a good option to think about buying a money-saving travel pass for your train journeys. I stayed in Switzerland for a few days and as usual I didn’t plan anything ahead, so I regret I didn’t buy a travel pass at the beginning of my trip.

You can buy your ticket from Zürich HB to Vaduz. The train actually stops in Sargans (right on the boarder between the two countries) and from there you have to take bus #11 to Vaduz, Au. The hotel that we chose was actually located in a small village at the mountains, around 6km away from Vaduz. The transportation is so well-organized so we were able to reach to that small village by bus. We found out the nearest stop which is called Steg FL,Tunnel. You can go there by bus #21. I can say that trains in Switzerland and Liechtenstein are amazingly punctual.
You can also ask for a detailed plan of your itinerary (including transfer stations, time of transfer, which car to get into) from the ticket offices. So here it is our train/bus itinerary to Liechtenstein, step by step:

The train journey is definitely worth it. The view through the window will mostly consist of beautiful mountains and lakes all the way.

How much it cost to go from Zurich to Liechtenstein?
41.40 CHF per person (as I said I didn’t have travel pass, so that is a full fare ticket)

Where to stay?
Berggasthaus Sücka
That was definitely a great choice. The cozy guesthouse is located in Sücka area, around 6 km from Vaduz. It’s in the mountains and the place is extremely peaceful and beautiful. I think it’s much better to stay somewhere in the tiny mountain villages than in the capital (which is also not very big anyway) :) The owners were really hospitable. We booked 1 night through booking.com because the website didn’t show any available rooms for the next day. Later, we found out that on Mondays the guesthouse is closed but still the family agreed to accept us for 2 nights! The breakfast is simple, yet amazing - everything is homemade and you shouldn’t miss to try the yoghurt. Price for 1 night: 90 CHF (breakfast incl).

And the view from your window early in the morning is priceless:

Budget?

Me and my partner Tsvetan stayed 2 days in Liechtenstein and we’ve spent around 400 CHF in total (accommodation, transport, food) and have to say we are not from that type of people who eat a lot :

6 reasons to visit Liechtenstein

1. Think about the fact how cool it would be to be able to say: "I have a stamp from the 6th smallest country in the world". I’m sure most people don’t know even what’s the name the capital of Liechtenstein. The city is called Vaduz and with a population of 5000 people it beats all the records for a tiny capital :)

2. Nature. If you love hiking this is the place to be! All the time you will be surrounded by mountain views with tons of possibilities to explore. (I will write a sample itinerary in the topic “Things to do”)

3. Food. I can’t skip this as it is a sustainable reason to visit any country in the world. During this trip I fell in love with the Swiss fondue wish happened to be a traditional dish in Liechtenstein too. It’s made of melted cheeses served in a pot. The fun part is you eat it with dipped bread. The taste is out of this world!

If you stay somewhere in the mountains like we did, you will have the privilege to have organic yoghurt, jam and cheese for breakfast. Plus a wonderful view. 

4. Solitude. Those of you who follow my blog know that I work as a flight attendant. For many of us the lack of people is a luxury and personally I loved the fact that Liechtenstein is one of the least densely populated countries in the world. For some people this might sound boring, to me it was a blessing :) 

5. It’s small! So this means you don’t need more than 2 days to explore the country. Actually we did a hiking in the mountains and sightseeing of Vaduz in just one day! 

6. It’s expensive. This might not sound as a reason to visit Liechtenstein but look at the positive side: you can try your best to cut your costs and travel on a budget. Can’t think of a way how to do that? 

Hitchhiking is a great way to save money on transportation. It wasn’t that easy but it was also not impossible and we did it! We went back from Vaduz to Zurich, hitchhiking. 

It was a great experience and not only we saved money but it reminded me of my adventures back in the days when I had the irresistible desire to travel but I didn’t have enough money. (If you want to learn more details about it scroll down to the next topic) :)

Things to do

Hiking

If you stay somewhere around Vaduz you have a chance to do some hiking. As I already mentioned we stayed in Sücka which is a great place to start. The owner of our hotel gave us a map and recommended to go from Sücka to Silum and after that to Gaflei. 

All these are small villages uphill that offer amazing views over the mountains. 

The trekking path is always marked so there is no chance to get lost.

So we started from Sücka and not long after we reached a sign offering different routes. We took the route to Silum. 

Here it is some amazing things we saw on the way: 

We were going higher and higher and the view was getting more and more magnificent. 

Not long after we reached Gaflei. 

In the whole area there is a lot of water fountains so all you need with you is a small empty bottle of water. 

After another hour or two we reached another sign offering two different directions 

I was really excited from the beautiful places we have seen and I wanted to reach Drei Shwestern (The Tree sisters) summit which I have to admit was quite an ambitious plan. 

We took the left path through Fürstensteig but when we reached the place we understood what the warning signs with stop meant: there was a danger of falling rocks so it was too risky to use this trail. 

We had to go back and use the other trail via Bargella - another beautiful place, situated at 1663m. 

From Bargella we continued up to Bärgällasattel - 1742m

Here we took some rest and made some amazing shots :)

We continued following the sign for Kamin/Drei Shwestern. 

We reached a point where the trek was getting quite difficult. There was some ropes (as you can see on the photo below) that were supposed to help you lower your body down. There was also some snow left and neither me nor Tsvetan were having proper trekking shoes so we decided we will stop here. 

We took some rest on a good view point. We didn’t make it all the way to Drei Schwestern but even that view was remarkable:

Sightseeing of the capital

We went down all the way back to Sücka and we took the bus from Steg Tunnel to Vaduz Post. 

Note: if you are planning to go to Vaduz and then to take the bus on the way back you can buy a return ticket and save couple of CHF. Return ticket will cost you 10 CHF and the price of a single ticket is 6 CHF. And why not trying your luck hitchhiking to the city? It’s possible if you’re not in a hurry :)

It was already afternoon so we didn't want to waste more time. We bought return tickets to Vaduz and started from the main street referred by the locals as the Städtle (“small town”). 

Here you’ll find Tourist Info Center where you can get your passport stamped against a small fee of 3 CHF.

The city center is small and quite empty. If you have time you can sit and enjoy a drink in one of the small cafeterias located here. 

Nearby you will find the small building of The City Hall (Rathaus). 

The best part of our sightseeing was going uphill to Vaduz Castle. The walk will take you between 40 min to 1 hour and it’s totally worth it. On your way to the castle you have a chance to stop and read some information about the history of Liechtenstein as well as some interesting facts about the economy of the country. 

There’s a small viewpoint from where you can see the charming city. 

Vaduz Castle is the palace and official residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein. Even though you are not allowed to enter the castle, you can enjoy that peaceful place which looks like as if ti came straight out of a fairytale from the outside. 

Hitchhiking

After a few days in this part of Europe you need some cost cutting if you want to survive. And what better way to do this than hitchhiking. I have to admit I haven’t done this since my trip to Prague  and it felt sooo good being able to travel freely and for free between two countries. 

Do you want to know how to go from Vaduz to Zurich for free?

It’s easy.

With the help of hitchwiki.org we found a relatively good spot for hitchhiking around Vaduz. 

How we reached there?

We took the public bus from Steg Fl Tunnel to Vaduz Au. After that we walked for another 15-20 min until we reached this point:

It’s an wooden bridge that basically separates Liechtenstein from Switzerland. So how cool is to be able to cross a border on your feet?

Crossing that bridge will take you to Switzerland. 

After the bridge we walked for another 5-10 min we ended up in a not-so-comfy spot, where we decided it’s perfect to make people believe we were “in a desperate need” of transportation :D

It was extremely hot and I think we spent there quite a long time (40-45 min) trying to catch a car. One thing is for sure: both of us got a sunburn on this damn route :D

“A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else”

Finally, a guy picked us up to the next city called Sargans. 

We didn’t give up and we hitchhiked from there. The waiting time was even shorter and we got picked up from another car straight to Zurich!

So the car left us exactly at the place where we started this journey: Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Zürich HB) from where our next adventure starts. 

Lesson learned: I may have got a sunburn but hey, I did hitchhiked between two countries! ;)

Do you want to know what happened after we reached Zurich? Follow my blog and read my next story which is entirely about Switzerland and its beauties :)