The exceptions are the part worth memorising, because there are only two of them. First class on the national trains is not covered, and neither is any stretch of a journey that continues past the border, where the foreign operator sells you its own ticket for its own section. Everything else carries you for nothing: buses, the tram, second-class trains, the funicular, with no card to buy, no app to register and nothing to validate. Conductors can still ask to see an identity document, so keep one on you. Set that against hotel and restaurant prices among the steepest in Europe, and you have the whole arrangement of the Grand Duchy in a single line.
Findel airport sits a short ride east of the centre, and since the tram line was extended to the terminal you can ride the whole way in, free like the rest of it, in around half an hour from the old town. Trains arrive from Brussels, Paris and Trier. One local quirk is worth exploiting: this is a banking capital, so hotel rates follow the working week and often fall at weekends, which is the reverse of most European cities. It is worth a moment to compare flights and hotels for Luxembourg and to price a Friday arrival against a Monday one before you commit to dates.
Entry itself is the part people skip. The country is in the Schengen area, so visitors from outside the European Union are held to a short-stay limit of ninety days within any rolling period of half a year, and the passport stamp has gone: the Entry and Exit System records non-European arrivals with fingerprints and a facial image at the first crossing instead. A separate online travel authorisation for visa-exempt visitors has been announced and postponed more than once, so check the official European Union page rather than a commercial lookalike before you book. The currency is the euro and cards are taken everywhere, so there is little reason to arrive with cash.
Where you stay decides your daily climb, because the place is built on and around a gorge. In the Ville Haute, boutique and historic hotels sit around the Place d'Armes and the Grand Ducal Palace, which puts everything on foot. Beside the Gare, mid-range hotels cluster in the busiest and most practical quarter, a short walk or a free tram ride from the centre. Down in the Grund, guesthouses and apartment rentals line the Alzette below the Bock cliff among the old mills, quiet and slightly cut off from everything above. On the Kirchberg plateau, modern business hotels stand among the European institutions beside Mudam and the Philharmonie, and they drop their rates when the offices empty.
As a city break the bookings that matter are guided walks, casemate tickets and day trips, while a hire car is close to pointless in a country where the trains cost nothing and parking in the upper town does not. The Bock Casemates, tunnelled into the rock beneath the old fortress, are no longer a summer attraction: they now open every day of the year except Christmas Day and New Year's Day, on timed entry with a fixed slot, though older guides still describe a winter closure. Free lifts and a funicular carry you between the upper town and the gorge districts and save a great deal of stair climbing, and the free trains reach everywhere else: Vianden and its castle above the river, Echternach and the sandstone paths of the Mullerthal, the Moselle vineyards along the German border. You can check guided tour and day trip options for the Grand Duchy and treat the trains as an open invitation.
Season still decides a lot, because the best of this is outdoors. Late spring through early autumn gives the long light for the Chemin de la Corniche, the cliff-edge walk that someone once called the most beautiful balcony in Europe, and for the Mullerthal trails. Autumn adds the Moselle harvest, December brings a Christmas market to the upper squares, and deep winter is grey and short-lit, which is when the rates fall. Whenever you come, walk down rather than around: take the Corniche for the view, drop into the gorge through the old gates, follow the Alzette past the mills, then ride a lift back to street level. Personally, I would give the second day entirely to a train, pick one castle or one valley, and let the free ticket do what it was designed to do.
Q: What still costs money if the transport is free?
A: First class on the national trains, and any part of a journey that continues outside the country. The domestic portion of a cross-border trip stays free and the foreign operator sells the rest. Taxis, parking and museum admissions sit outside the policy altogether.
Q: Can you get from the airport into the city without paying?
A: Yes. The tram runs from Findel into the centre and is free like the rest of the network, so there is no ticket or transfer to arrange on arrival. Allow around half an hour from the terminal to the old town.
Q: Are the Bock Casemates open in winter?
A: Yes. They now open every day of the year apart from Christmas Day and New Year's Day, on timed entry. Older guides describe a seasonal closure, so check the current calendar rather than a printed guidebook.
Q: What are the best day trips from Luxembourg City?
A: Vianden for its castle, Echternach and the Mullerthal for walking, the Moselle for wine, and Trier across the German border for Roman remains. All but Trier are free to reach, and the German leg needs a ticket.
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