Liechtenstein Discovery Guide

Liechtenstein is the Alpine country you can cross on a 5-franc bus ticket. A castle where the prince still lives stands above a capital of 5,696 people, on a Rhine valley floor of eleven villages. The mountains rise to 2,599 metres, with a single ski resort at Malbun and an army disbanded in 1868. It is the smallest country in the world to border two others, one of two doubly landlocked, and a monarchy whose prince won a referendum in 2003 by threatening to leave.

The main travel issue

There is not much of it -- most visitors do Vaduz in an afternoon from Switzerland -- and that the Swiss franc prices everything accordingly.

The solution

Stay a night or two and walk: the mountains above Malbun and Steg are empty by Swiss standards, the buses run to every trailhead, and the country is small enough that a week on foot sees all of it.

If you travel slowly

Base in Malbun, the ski village at 1,600 metres in an exclave of Triesenberg less than two kilometres from the Austrian border, and walk or ski from the door; in summer the trails climb toward the Grauspitz and the ridges that are the frontier with Austria, and in winter it is the only ski resort in the country and priced like a village rather than a resort.

If you want to see the essentials

Vaduz: the castle on its steep hill, home to the prince and not open to the public, seen from the path below; the National Museum, first established in 1890 in rooms of that castle; the Kunstmuseum of modern and contemporary art; and the walk along the Rhine to the Swiss bank. Then Balzers and Gutenberg Castle between its two villages, and the road up to Triesenberg for the view.

If you seek local character

German is official and the Alemannic dialect is what is spoken; Schaan, the largest municipality at 6,039 people, is where the LIEmobil customer centre and much of the industry is, and the morning traffic from Switzerland, Austria and Germany is the country's economy arriving for work.

If you want to go beyond the obvious

The Ruggeller Riet, the lowest point at 430 metres, is a wetland reserve on the northern border; the villages of the Schellenberg, the northern county of 1719, are the quiet half; and the whole country can be walked end to end along the valley and back over the tops.

Liechtenstein is a dynasty's country that became a nation. The family took its name from a castle south of Vienna, bought the counties of Vaduz and Schellenberg to acquire a seat in the Holy Roman Empire, and did not visit until 1818; the people who lived here were Alemannic-speaking Rhine valley farmers who became, in the twentieth century, the workforce of a small industrial and financial state. The prince matters more than in any other European monarchy -- Hans-Adam II, who ran the family's LGT Bank before his accession in 1989, won expanded powers in a 2003 referendum by threatening to abdicate and leave, and handed daily government to his son Alois in 2004 -- and the people voted for that.

The state is Swiss in its plumbing and Austrian in its history. Switzerland handles Liechtenstein's customs and immigration, the currency is the Swiss franc, and the buses run to Buchs and Sargans on the Swiss side as well as to Feldkirch in Austria; the country is in Schengen and the European Economic Area but not the EU, and in the United Nations, EFTA and the Council of Europe. Neutrality dates from 12 February 1868, when the army of eighty men was disbanded.

Manners are Alpine and orderly: German spoken quietly, rules followed, priority to the right observed. Crime is low, drugs including cannabis carry severe penalties even in transit, and the country has no interest in being anyone's playground.

Liechtenstein's environment is the Alps in miniature and the rules are the Alps'. The advisories put the risks plainly: avalanches in mountainous areas all year round, some fatal even with light snow, so follow the European Avalanche Warning Service and carry search equipment; never hike or ski alone; stay on marked trails; carry insurance that includes helicopter rescue -- REGA answers on 1414 -- and know the symptoms of altitude illness. Heavy rain in spring and summer brings flooding and landslides that can close roads.

The valley floor is farmed and settled to the edge, and the mountains are grazed; the Ruggeller Riet wetland and the high alps are the country's protected ground, and the country is small enough that a visitor's footprint shows. Take the bus: LIEmobil runs to every village and trailhead, takes cards and not cash, and a day ticket for the whole country is 9 francs.

Spend money where the country makes it -- the village inns of Malbun and Triesenberg, the museums of Vaduz -- rather than driving in from Switzerland for an hour and a photograph.

January–February -- Malbun's ski season at 1,600 metres, the only resort in the country; snow chains recommended on the mountain roads, which are not always ploughed, and avalanche warnings in force.

March–April -- the end of the ski season and the melt; the valley greens while the tops stay white; the risk of flooding and landslides begins with the spring rains.

May–June -- the valley in blossom, the lower trails open, the high ones still snowbound; the museums and the castle path in Vaduz before the summer coaches.

July–August -- the walking season from Malbun and Steg to the ridges, the national day on 15 August in Vaduz, and the year's warmest weather on the Rhine; summer storms bring the heaviest rain.

September–October -- the best walking, the larches turning, the coaches gone; the first snow on the Grauspitz.

November–December -- the valley in fog and the mountains in snow; Malbun's lifts open when the snow allows, and Vaduz keeps its Christmas market.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Year-round relative cost index vs country average

Higher — Vaduz, Malbun in ski season

Average — Schaan, Balzers, Triesenberg

Lower — the northern villages of the Schellenberg, and nowhere much: the franc levels the country

Bus fares are LIEmobil's own tariff; museum, castle and lift prices are not stated because no page that sets them answered, and the relative bands are editorial judgment.