Luxembourg

Rick hasn't added Luxembourg as one of his 'Top Destinations' so he doesn't have any official recommendations. However, I just visited in late September and I do think the city/country have nice things to offer to travelers. The sites in Luxembourg city will last you about a day to see them all. It is a beautiful city that is built on cliffs and has an upper and lower town, both worth walking through. It does have a few museums but only the Luxembourg City Museum felt worth going out of your way to visit. The real highlight for me was doing a day trip out to some of the smaller towns. For four Euros you can get a day pass that lets you ride any of Luxembourg's trains or buses. I went out to Diekirch (which has a nice WWII museum) and Esch-sur-Sure which is an adorable town in the Ardennes.

Basically if you only have one day you can visit Luxembourg City easily and have time to eat a couple slow meals. Otherwise if you wanted to devote two or three nights there then you would want to do day trips. Happy Travels!

I suppose worth noting, the forum is not a direct line to Rick, though some of his staffers chime in from time to time, the rest of us are just odd people that travel and like to talk about it.

As for Luxembourg, I recall seeing some comments, but no, not covered by RS. I ventured there myself, Luxembourg city is very nice, no great museum or sights, except for a great old european city and a number of villages worth a trip for the view. Aside from that, there is the American cemetery, featuring General Patton's gravesight,

Aside from that, I suppose the country is overshadowed by it's neighbors, for the first time, or maybe second time European visitor, it may not rate except for racking up "another country off the list".

{ADDITION}

Thank you, Kevin, for your recommendation.

My great-grandfathers came from Luxembourg. I wish to travel there in the next few years to see how many distant cousins I have. :-)

{My relatives came from Luxembourg when it was part of The Prussian Empire. I speculate my initial search would be in the old city.

Thank you Nigel, and Wil for shedding more light on this little country}

I make it a point to stop in Luxembourg most years. I enjoy the rolling hills, the miles and miles of winding rivers and hillsides covered in vines. It is complemented by a beautiful capital city with pastel colours and fairytale towers.

It isn't true to say that Rick has never included Luxembourg. Back many years ago, in the first TV show series, he did an episode on Luxembourg where he showed it in a good light. There used to be a chapter in the Netherlands and Belgium book, too. It has all fallen away.

That's a shame.

So many more people go to Luxembourg from the RS family because Trier is just over the border and is now the starting point for the GAS tour (Germany Austria Switzerland), and many people fly in early to look around.

Luxembourg just misses the spectacular sites and for that it remains a bit under the radar. It´s a clean, safe and well maintained country, mostly popular for outdoor activities like walking, canoeing and camping. Outside the holiday season here and there a bit boring I guess. But as a whole its a nice country and a good base for daytrips to places abroad.

The historic centre of the capital is the only site in the country on the UNESCO list. But there are many nice little towns, villages like indeed Esch-sur-Sûre, but also Vianden, Echternach and a bunch of castles and ruins with nice views. Requires some exploring to see the nice spots.

Places to visit outside Luxembourg (best to use a car for most):
Germany: Trier, Mosel, Aachen, Monschau, the former ironworks of Völklingen.
France: Metz, Nancy, Verdun
Belgium: Bastogne, Bouillon.

I've only been to Luxembourg City, and echo what others have said about it - very compact and most things to see there can be done in a day: Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin; the casemates and fortress; Palace of the Grand Dukes and other government buildings (seen from the outside); a walk around the Ville Basse (Lower City) with its abbey and private gardens. The Ville Haute (Upper City) has a lot of shopping and restaurants, especially near the train station.

clemenich,

I was in Luxembourg City last year for a few days. I didnt have any chance to go outside of the city though and plan on going back since there is supposedly a great WWII museum in Diekirch.

But i enjoyed my stay in Luxembourg City and plan on going back.

try using google. "things to do and see in X" where X is where you want to go. Its easy.

happy trails.

Luxembourg City has a lot to do as others mentioned. Also check out Larochette. Old castle, great hiking/biking trails, old church in town. There is also a US military cemetery near Luxembourg City which is where Patton is buried.

We just spent 4 busy days in Luxembourg, on a trip that started in Belgium, went through Germany, up to the Netherlands.

Our goal was to look up family roots, so we stayed in Diekirch, where my husband's great-grandfather was born. Unfortunately we had forgotten our IDP so we were not able to rent a car. But fortunately, Luxembourg has a great public transportation system that you can ride all day for 4 euros (train and/or bus).

We learned that Ettelbruck is a transportation hub for Luxembourg (at least the parts we saw). It seems every train or bus connects through Ettelbruck. And it was a wonderful little town. It would actually have been a better base for us than Diekirch, because every day trip we took required a stop in Ettelbruck. Both towns have nice pedestrian-only market squares, with shops & restaurants & even gelato shops! Ettelbruck is bigger and has a great market every Friday morning.

Diekirch has an amazing National Museum of Military History. It's huge, filled with all kinds of actual vehicles, guns ... there are carefully detailed life-size dioramas with mannequins dressed in actual uniforms, of a first-aid station, a field kitchen, etc. Most of these items were just abandoned after the war ended, and were collected by people in the area, who at some point decided to contribute them to a museum. Everything is beautifully restored. Most interesting were the photos of soldiers who fought in that area, and letters from them after the war describing their experiences. I tend to get bored pretty quickly in museums, but we spent hours here. If you have any interest in WWII memorabilia, this is a must-see. There's a great Portuguese restaurant on the main street just down from the museum, where we had a fabulous dinner of mussels.

One day we took the bus from Diekirch (through Ettelbruck) to Niederfeulen, which is a little town where my husband's ancestors lived and found an old cemetery, but none of their graves. Still, it was wonderful to see this peaceful little town where they came from.

Another day we took the bus from Diekirch (through Ettelbruck) to Vianden to see the town & its castle. It was very quiet and pretty. We took a chairlift half-way up to the castle and my husband walked the rest of the way while I rested a sore foot. He gave me his jacket to hold, and had only 3 euros in his pocket. When he reached the castle the entrance fee for seniors was 5 euros and they wouldn't budge! They refused to let him in. Unbelievable. We then tried to take a bus from Vianden to Clervaux for the Family of Man exhibit; we waited an hour for the bus, which never showed, then waited another hour for a bus back to (yep) Ettelbruck. We decided to have dinner there, and while waiting for the restaurants to open, a bird pooped on my shoulder. Then we went to the restaurant we had seen earlier advertising an Osso Bucco special, and found out it was a LUNCH special, and there was none left. It was that kind of day.

The next day we had to choose between seeing Lux City and Clervaux, and opted for Clervaux. We took a train from Diekirch to Ettelbruck and another to Clervaux -- a nice, quiet, tiny town. The exhibit was really interesting -- around 500 photographs submitted to and curated by Edward Steichen, first shown in 1955 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It then travelled the world and is now on permanent exhibition here. The photos were grouped by subject (families, war, love, etc.). We had a nice lunch here, and wandered around the town. When we got back to Diekirch, there was a party going on across the street from our hotel. They were dedicating a renovation of the city hall, with a band, beer, bratwurst and they invited us to join them. So we did!

Our lasting impression of Luxembourg is of a quiet, immaculate, peaceful country with rolling hills and beautiful little towns. We never did see Luxembourg City. We decided to save that for our next trip.

You all are wonderful! Thanks for all the input!
You have given me so many wonderful ideas; and I'll try to remember to take along some "bird poop remover" :)