Vaduz, Capital of Liechtenstein: What to See and Do

Vaduz is the capital of Liechtenstein, a town of about 6,100 people on the Rhine between Switzerland and Austria, and half a day is enough to see it. Vaduz holds the parliament, the prince’s castle on the hillside above, three museums within a few minutes of each other on one pedestrian street, and the tourist office that will stamp your passport as a souvenir. The country around it has no airport, no border checks and no euro.

I stopped here on the drive home from Italy because I wanted to see the smallest capital I had ever heard of, and what struck me first was how tidy and organised everything was. Almost everyone on the street was in a suit. Vaduz is a working financial centre that happens to be a capital, and the tourist part of it is one street long.

Where is Vaduz and where is Liechtenstein?

Vaduz sits on the eastern bank of the Rhine, right against the Swiss border, in the western lowland of Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein itself is a principality of about 40,400 people squeezed between Switzerland to the west and Austria to the east, and the Rhine forms its entire western border. From the Swiss motorway it was a 20-minute detour for us to drive in.

Two things about that position matter for a visit. Liechtenstein is in the Schengen Area but not in the European Union, so there are no border checks and no passport stamp on arrival, which is exactly why the souvenir stamp exists. And it is in a customs and currency union with Switzerland dating to 1924, so the money is the Swiss franc rather than the euro. Our Liechtenstein travel guide covers the country beyond the capital, from Malbun to the museums pass.

Things to do in Vaduz

The 7 things to do in Vaduz are listed below. All of them sit within a 20-minute walk of each other, which is the whole appeal of the place.

1. Walk the Städtle

The Städtle is Vaduz’s pedestrianised main street and the spine of everything worth seeing in town. It is car-free end to end, lined with the shops, cafés, banks and museums that make up the centre, and dotted with sculptures by international and local artists that have accumulated over the years into an informal open-air gallery.

Walking it takes ten minutes without stopping. Doing it properly takes an hour, because the museums, the tourist office and the cathedral all open off it, and the castle sits directly above your head the whole way.

2. Look up at Vaduz Castle

Vaduz Castle is the prince’s private home and is closed to the public, so looking at it is the visit. The castle stands on a hillside terrace 120 m (394 ft) above the town, and the view of it from the Städtle is better than the view from beside it. We drove up to see it close, and the road brings you out behind the building, where a wall is most of what you get.

The castle’s history is longer than the country’s. The keep and the structures on its eastern side date from the 12th century and are thought to have been built by the counts of Werdenberg-Sargans; the Liechtenstein family bought the county of Vaduz along with the castle in 1712 and have owned it ever since. The one day of the year the grounds open is 15 August, the national day, when the reigning family holds a reception in the castle’s rose garden that anyone can walk into, visitors included, with speeches, free wine and fireworks over the town afterwards.

Walk up rather than drive if you have an hour. The footpath from the Städtle climbs through vineyard and woodland and gives you the castle from below the whole way, which is the angle everyone photographs.

3. See the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

The Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein is the black cube on the Städtle and the country’s museum of modern and contemporary art. Its facade is cement tinted with carbon black and iron oxide, mixed with black basalt and river pebbles from the Rhine valley, polished so that it reflects the mountains, and it opened on 11 November 2000 to a design by Meinrad Morger, Heinrich Degelo and Christian Kerez.

Inside are rotating exhibitions drawn from the national collection, and the Hilti Art Foundation’s collection occupies the white building attached to it. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00, stays open until 20:00 on Thursdays, and closes on Mondays.

4. Visit the Landesmuseum and the Treasure Chamber

The Liechtensteinisches Landesmuseum is the national museum, and it covers the principality from prehistory through the medieval witch trials to the industry that pays for the place today. It sits on the Städtle a few doors from the art museum, opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00 with a late Wednesday until 20:00, and lets everyone in free on 15 August.

The Treasure Chamber is the other one, a separate small museum further along the same street, open daily from 10:00 to 17:00. It holds the princely coronet, weapons, a Fabergé egg and a piece of Apollo 11 moon rock, and it is the most concentrated hour in Vaduz.

5. Get your passport stamped

The Liechtenstein Center on the Städtle stamps passports as a souvenir, and it is the thing most visitors leave with. Liechtenstein has no border control, so the stamp is decorative rather than an immigration record, and the office charges a small fee for it, commonly quoted at CHF 3 (about €3, $3.30, £2.60). It takes a minute and they will take francs, euros or a card.

The same desk is the country’s tourist office, hires bikes, and sells the Adventure Pass that bundles the stamp with entry to several museums. If you are doing two of the three Vaduz museums, ask about it at the counter before you buy tickets separately.

6. Step into St Florin’s Cathedral

St Florin’s is the neo-Gothic church at the southern end of the Städtle, and its slender spire is the first thing you see coming into town. The Viennese architect Friedrich von Schmidt built it between 1872 and 1874 as a parish church, and it became a cathedral only in 1997, when Pope John Paul II created the Archdiocese of Vaduz. Entry is free and it takes five minutes.

7. Taste the prince’s wine

The Hofkellerei is the reigning prince’s own winery, and its vineyard runs up the slope below the castle in the middle of town. It makes Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in quantities small enough that most of it never leaves the country, which makes a tasting the one thing you can do in Vaduz and nowhere else. Book ahead rather than turning up, because the tasting room keeps limited hours.

How long do you need in Vaduz?

Half a day is enough for Vaduz. The tourist centre is genuinely small, and I would not plan a full day here unless you are working through all three museums. What the country deserves is longer: I only had a couple of hours before a long drive, and I would happily have given Liechtenstein a day or two to see the valleys behind the capital.

The 3 realistic plans are below.

1. Two hours: the Städtle, the castle view, the passport stamp, a coffee. This is the stop most people make between Zurich and Austria.
2. Half a day: add one museum and the walk up towards the castle.
3. Two days: use Vaduz as a base and give the rest of the country the time, with Malbun for skiing or hiking, Balzers for Gutenberg Castle and Schellenberg for the castle ruins in the north.

Liechtenstein facts worth knowing

Liechtenstein is odd in ways that are genuinely interesting rather than merely small, and the 8 facts below are the ones that explain what you are looking at in Vaduz.

1. It is the sixth-smallest country in the world and the fourth-smallest in Europe, at 160 km² (61.8 sq mi). For scale, my hometown of Leuven has around 98,000 residents and is only the tenth largest city in Belgium; Liechtenstein has about 40,400 people in the whole country.
2. The currency is the Swiss franc, under a customs and currency union with Switzerland in place since 1924. Euros are taken in some tourist-facing shops at a poor rate.
3. There are more registered companies in Liechtenstein than there are people living in it, which is what low corporate tax does to a jurisdiction, and it is why the Städtle has so many bank facades on it.
4. It is the world’s largest producer of false teeth. Ivoclar, based in Schaan a few minutes up the road from Vaduz, turns out tens of millions of artificial teeth a year and ships them to around 130 countries.
5. The head of state is Prince Hans-Adam II, who has reigned since 1989, but his son Hereditary Prince Alois has been regent and has run day-to-day government since 15 August 2004.
6. The monarchy has real power, and the people voted to give it more. In a March 2003 referendum Liechtensteiners backed a constitutional change letting the prince dismiss the government and veto legislation.
7. Roughly a third of residents are foreign nationals, and German is the official language, though what you will actually hear on the street is Alemannic, the local dialect.
8. There is no airport. The nearest ones are Zurich and St Gallen-Altenrhein in Switzerland and Friedrichshafen in Germany, which is why almost everyone arrives by road.

How to get to Vaduz

You get to Vaduz by bus from a Swiss or Austrian railway station, or by car. Vaduz has no motorway of its own and no airport in the country, so every route ends with a short local leg. The 3 ways in are described below.

1. By bus from Buchs SG: the closest Swiss railway station to Vaduz, with LIEmobil bus 11 running into town in roughly 10 minutes and going every 15 minutes for much of the day.
2. By bus from Sargans or Feldkirch: Sargans is the stop for fast trains from Zurich and Chur, and the bus from there takes about half an hour; Feldkirch, on the Austrian side, connects the same way. Tickets cost a few francs and can be bought on the bus.
3. By car: the drive from the Swiss A13 motorway is short, and there is paid parking under and around the Städtle. This is how we came, and it is the only way that lets you carry on into the mountain villages the same afternoon.

Trains do stop at Schaan-Vaduz station on the Feldkirch to Buchs line, but only a handful call each day, so treat the bus as the real service rather than the railway. Compare train and coach routes across Europe if you are working out how to reach Sargans, Buchs or Feldkirch in the first place, and check car rental prices if you are driving in from Zurich.

Where to stay in and around Vaduz

Stay in Vaduz for the museums and the castle view, and in Triesenberg or Malbun for the mountains. Vaduz has very few hotels for a capital, so the villages on the slope above it are where most of the rooms are, and all of them are within about 20 minutes by road. The 4 options below were all still trading when this page was last checked.

In the centre of Vaduz: Residence Hotel. A four-star hotel on the Städtle, a short walk from the castle path and every museum in town. Rooms are large and light with balconies looking across the Rhine valley, and there is a restaurant, a bar and spa treatments on site. Check rates and availability for the Residence Hotel.

On the mountainside: Hotel Restaurant Kulm. A simple, well-kept hotel in Triesenberg, about 15 minutes by road south-east of Vaduz, with a view across the Alpine Rhine valley that is worth more than the room rate suggests. Some rooms have balconies, and there is a restaurant with an outdoor terrace. Compare prices for Hotel Restaurant Kulm in Triesenberg before you book.

For the ski area: JUFA Hotel Malbun Alpin Resort. A modern family hotel at the foot of the Malbun slopes, on the other side of the country and still only about 20 minutes from Vaduz by road. It has a restaurant, a sauna and a terrace with a view down the valley. Rates for JUFA Hotel Malbun move a lot between the ski season and the summer.

Self-catering: Appartement Fernsicht Triesenberg. Chalet-style apartments a five-minute walk from the centre of Triesenberg, each with a kitchen, a dining area and a view over the Rhine valley and the Swiss Alps. Free parking, a ski store, and a bus stop outside the door with a direct connection to Vaduz. Look at Appartement Fernsicht if you would rather cook than eat out.

Liechtenstein has a small enough stock of rooms that a busy weekend empties it, so book early for the national day on 15 August and for the winter ski weeks. For apartments beyond the ones above, Vrbo covers the villages the hotel sites barely list, and Booking.com’s Liechtenstein pages will show you the whole country at once, which takes about a minute given the size of it.

Is Vaduz worth visiting?

Yes, as a half-day stop rather than a destination in itself. Vaduz gives you a castle on a hill, three good museums on one car-free street, a passport stamp nobody at a border will ever ask for, and the odd experience of standing in a national capital you can cross on foot in ten minutes. What it does not give you is a full day of sightseeing, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.

The better plan is the one I did not have time for: treat Vaduz as the door into the country rather than the point of it. The mountain roads above the town, the ski runs at Malbun and the castle ruins in the north are what a second day in Liechtenstein is actually for.

Vaduz FAQ

What is the capital of Liechtenstein?

Vaduz is the capital of Liechtenstein. It has about 6,100 residents, holds the national parliament and the prince’s castle, and is not the country’s largest town: that is Schaan, just up the road.

What currency does Liechtenstein use?

The Swiss franc, not the euro, under a currency union with Switzerland that has run since 1924. Cards work almost everywhere in Vaduz, and euros are accepted in some shops at a rate you will not like.

Can you go inside Vaduz Castle?

No. Vaduz Castle is the private residence of the princely family and is closed to the public all year. The exception is 15 August, the national day, when the reception in the castle’s rose garden is open to anyone who walks up.

Do you need a passport for Liechtenstein?

Not for a border check, because there is none. Liechtenstein is in the Schengen Area, so you cross from Switzerland or Austria without stopping. Bring your passport anyway if you want the souvenir stamp from the Liechtenstein Center.

Is Liechtenstein expensive?

Yes, on a par with Switzerland, which is what a shared currency and a shared border produce. Museum entry and bus fares are modest; hotels and restaurants are where the money goes.

How do you get to Vaduz from Zurich?

Train to Sargans or Buchs SG, then a local bus into Vaduz. The bus takes roughly 10 minutes from Buchs and about half an hour from Sargans, and the whole trip from Zurich runs to about 90 minutes.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 5 tips below come from my own stop in Vaduz on the drive home from Italy and from re-checking the castle, the museums and the bus routes against their own sources.

1. Come on 15 August if you want to be inside the castle grounds. The national day is the single day of the year they open, when the princely family holds a reception in the rose garden that anyone can walk into, with speeches, free wine and fireworks, and the Landesmuseum lets everyone in free. Book a room weeks ahead, because the country’s whole stock of beds empties that weekend.
2. Walk up to the castle instead of driving up to it. We drove, parked above and came out behind the building, which is the one angle nobody wants. The footpath from the Städtle climbs through vineyard and woodland and keeps the castle above you the whole way.
3. Treat the bus as the real service and the railway as a curiosity. Trains do call at Schaan-Vaduz on the Feldkirch to Buchs line, but only a handful a day, so take a train to Buchs SG or Sargans and a local bus in, about 10 minutes from Buchs and half an hour from Sargans, paid on board in francs.
4. Ask about the Adventure Pass at the Liechtenstein Center before you buy museum tickets. The same desk that stamps passports as a souvenir, commonly quoted at CHF 3, sells a pass bundling the stamp with entry to several museums, which pays off as soon as you visit two of the three in Vaduz.
5. Give the capital half a day and the country the rest. Two hours covers the Städtle, the castle view, the stamp and a coffee, which is what we had on the way home. I would rather have given Liechtenstein a day or two and driven into the countryside behind it.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her stop in Vaduz on the drive home from Italy. The team covers Liechtenstein for independent travellers, including the hotels around Vaduz and Triesenberg worth booking, and updates this page when prices, dates and opening hours change.