Day Trip from Luzern to Lichtenstein

Get on the first train in the station from Luzern to anywhere. Ride for 2 hours . Get off and take a picture. Get back on the next train back to Luzern. When you get home, tell all your friends it is Liechtenstein. Who is going to call you a liar? :)
Seriously, its no big deal. You actually need to change trains in Zurich and go to Buchs. You can walk across the Rhine Bridge into Liechtenstein and go from there.

Well Sam, you made me laugh, that's for sure. We were thinking we wanted to go to all of the little independent countries but maybe we will rethink the whole thing. Thanks!

You can research it a bit more, but there really is no "there" there. You pass through it in about 15 minutes on the main rail line between Switzerland and Austria. It is pretty much indistinguishable with any other upper Rhine valley district. If you do go, there is bus every half hour from Buchs station, You need to change buses after 10 minutes at Schraan station to another 10 minute bus to Vaduz where you can hike up to the castle.

OK Need more help.
We are debating driving from Lucerne to Salzburg vs taking the train. There looks to be a lot of construction on the road into Salzburg though and we are wondering if it is really the 5 hour driving trip or much more. Is it better to try the drive or just have a day on the train.

Beautiful place with tons to do and gorgeous views vs. yet another valley with a few plain hills

The ride is not beautiful, compared with other parts of Switzerland.

This catching all the little countries lark isn't always as cool as it sounds - I've done some of it.

The road between Innsbruck and the Swiss/Liechtenstein border is mostly tunnel after tunnel, and one of the longest (I think about 15km from my drive through a couple of weeks ago) has a fairly sharp toll, in addition to the Vignette you must purchase or risk huge fines, and isn't particularly beautiful because of the tunnels.

The train ride between Switzerland and Salzburg is quite scenic and easy.

You can get an on-line only nonrefundable print-at-home ticket, price of 58 chf per person, one change at Zurich Hbf, 6 1/2 hours, and you will spend 15 minutes of that time in Liechtenstein. www.sbb.ch

Thank you Nigel. You have definitely given us great information and we have decided the train makes much more sense. Can I ask you what a vignette is that you have to buy? I don't know that word.

As for the train, thank you also for that information. I think that will be our plan and to just decide on the 5:30AM with one stop or the 7:35 with 2 stops.

Thank you so much. Do they stamp your passport at the train station in Lichtenstein??!!

I believe you have to go to the tourist office in Vaduz during normal business hours and pay 3 chf for a passport stamp. There is some controversy as the whether this is a legal stamp (may invalidate your passport, according to some). There is really no train station in Liechtenstein. Schaan has a station, but no trains stop there any more.

Vignettes are windscreen sticker permits to drive various vehicles - often trucks - on certain roads or bridges in certain countries.

For passenger cars the countries most often mentioned with Vignettes are Switzerland and Austria, and one of the eastern central European countries which has slipped my mind.

In Switzerland it costs CHF40 for one calendar year plus the prior December and the following January (14 months) and is required on all roads with a green motorway sign and roads with a blue sign which also display a green rectangle sign with a white graphic of a car - many small single lane roads are so marked.

In Austria Vignettes are available for periods as short as 10 days (€8.50 I think it was a couple of weeks ago) or for longer periods. They are required on all of the top two classes of roads but are not marked as well as in Switzerland.

Both Switzerland and Austria enforce the Vignette very strictly and hand out seriously large fines for failing to display a valid one in the correct way on the windscreen. Scotch tape is illegal to do that. Both manned inspection and enforcement and photo enforcement are in use in both countries.

Switzerland tends to include tunnels and bridges in their fee; Austria also has a few pricy tunnels and toll roads on roads which require Vignettes too.