Luxemburg

Luxembourg: Where the Castles Are Endless, the Salaries Are High, and You Can Drive Across It on Your Lunch Break

Welcome to Luxembourg, one of the smallest countries in the world, yet so ridiculously wealthy, clean, and charming that it feels less like a sovereign nation and more like an exclusive, high-end gated community for European bankers.

It’s a country so compact that if you accidentally miss your highway exit, you’ll find yourself in Germany, France, or Belgium before you can even find a place to turn around. You can literally cross the entire nation from north to south in about an hour, making it the only place on Earth where a "road trip" requires a single playlist.

In Luxembourg City, ancient history collides with high finance. The city is built across dramatic gorge cliffs connected by soaring bridges, featuring the Bock Casemates—an underground maze of 17th-century stone tunnels originally built for war, now mostly used by tourists getting mildly lost. Up above, pristine streets are lined with EU government buildings, multinational headquarters, and people wearing tailored suits who look like they manage several billion dollars before breakfast.

Then there’s the public transit flexibility. Luxembourg made global headlines by making all public buses, trains, and trams completely 100% free for everyone—locals and tourists alike. You just hop on a sleek, quiet train, ride past fairytale castles like Vianden nestled in lush green hills, and hop off without ever reaching for a wallet.

Between sipping sparkling Crémant wine along the Moselle river, hiking the rugged rock formations of the "Little Switzerland" region, and wondering how a country this small holds so much money, Luxembourg is tranquil, affluent, and delightfully convenient. Just don't plan a late-night party—things tend to quiet down early when the whole country goes to bed!

February, 2010