A Luxembourg Road Trip

Luxembourg is slap bang in the middle of Northwestern Europe. With it’s small size this country offers a great adventure that you can’t do in many other places in the world – visit four different countries in one day!

Start your Luxembourg road trip in Schengen, a small town located in south east Luxembourg and famous for its namesake European agreement allowing the free movement of people. There is a small museum to get your dosage of political history, but more importantly it is right on the French border where you can start to tick off the countries with a large ‘Welcome to Luxembourg’ sign to mark the moment.

Driving back north along the no. 10 road, you will follow the River Moselle, the natural border with Germany and the basin of the famous wine region. Along the way you’ll spy a number of vineyards both on the Luxembourg and German banks, growing the regions most notable grapes including Riesling and Pinot Gris.

A great place to stop off on your way is a visit to Caves de St Martin, a large producer of both still and sparkling wines. The Caves is one of the areas largest natural cellars, dug entirely into the rock along the riverbank in order to store just some of the 1 million bottles of wine produced annually.

You can enjoy a guided tour of the cellars, with an explanation of the traditional method (identical to the champagne method) used to produce their cremants. Finishing with a generous tasting of their many wines, still and sparkling, at the end. With some bottles starting at only a couple of euros, you can pick up some great bargains to fit in your suitcase!

Just before you carry on North with your Luxembourg road trip, seek out the viewpoint nestled amongst the vineyards just above Remich, offering stunning views down across the valley, over the river and into Germany.

Continuing up along the river, take the opportunity to tick off country number 3 on your adventure by skipping across one of the many bridges along the way and following the water’s edge along the German bank.

Luxembourg’s most famous cremant producer (sparkling wine with a similar creamy taste to some champagnes), Bernard-Massard, have their cellars and wine shop in the town of Grevenmach. You can stop off to explore more delicious wines (none for the designated driver)! If you’ve time you can jump on a river cruise down to Remich and back, enjoying the beautiful valley from the deck of your boat.

Breaking away from the river and heading north west, you can meander through the Mullerthal region of the country and watch as the landscape changes from rows of vines to dense woodland, aiming for the town of Larochette. There are many hiking trails spread through the Mullerthal region, all clearly signposted, if you fancy stretching your legs. When you reach Larochette you will encounter the first stunning Chateau of your adventure. Towering over the town this Chateau is more of a ruin than others you will see later on in your journey, although it’s majestic position and beautiful views are not to be missed.

Continuing North you will come across the town of Dietrich, home and namesake of one of the country’s most famous beers. The town has a quaint historic centre with a few small restaurants and bars worth stopping at to enjoy a taste of the local pilsner!

Your next stop on your Luxembourg road trip is the most famous destination outside of the capital, the majestic castle of Vianden. You should first seek out the viewpoint of the castle from the south of the town, offering an excellent photo opportunity with the striking castle set against the wooded landscape of the hills around. There are several other castles in Luxembourg you might want to add to your journey including the impressive Bourscheid Castle.

The town is a popular destination with many visitors taking a trip from the capital just to come here , and others travelling from neighbouring countries for a day out. The level of the crowds after the sleepiness of previous towns may be shocking and you might struggle finding somewhere to park!

At this point on our trip we had not yet found any lunch, so with tummy’s rumbling, we continued on to Clerveaux. There are a couple of viewpoints along the road with a great shot down across the town to stop at before you continue descending into the town at the bottom of the valley. A cosy little town, you can stop off at the delicious steakhouse in the centre and enjoy some lunch.

Clerveaux is your last stop in the north before you tick off the final country on your adventure, Belgium. With the journey nearly complete continue heading North until you reach the Belgian border. Less obvious than the other borders we actually didn’t realise we weren’t in Luxembourg anymore until the street signs were in a different language. As the North is increasingly rural don’t be surprised if Google maps take your a route that is technically for agricultural vehicles only. I hope the farmer didn’t mind our short detour!

Having successfully traversed the length of this small nation and your checklist of the four countries complete, turn south to head back to the capital city. The journey continues to provide beautiful landscapes of the country’s rolling hills, and with only an hour’s journey back to the capital, you can easily make it back in time for dinner or for your evening flight.