In january 2022, against all odds, I managed to follow my Dear to liechtenstein. Initially she planned to walk the liechtensteiner trail, a 75km hike through all 11 municipalities with her sister, but due to a injury to her foot, her sister had to stay home.

So lucky me got to join her instead.

Liechtenstein is a german speaking, teeny tiny constitutional monarchy, embedded between Austria and Switzerland. Also, completely in the alps. As for the european competition on who is the real alp-country, Liechtenstein wins. At least percentage wise. Austria is sad.

The Liechtensteiner Trail

• The trail goes through all 11 municipalities of Liechtenstein

• The route is 75km long

• Ascents/descents of 2,000m/2,000m

• Min./max. altitude of 429m/1,103m

• Overall walking time of 21h (took us 24h, on 3 hiking days, but we went really slow, lots of breaks for pictures and food)

• It is possible to begin the trail from every municipality

• Parts of the route are also accessible for people with limited mobility

Due to covid, yes we have this comment everywhere, we couldn’t stay at camp sites or cheap hostels (watch out, Liechtenstein is hella expensive! >16€ for a pizza!). Instead we had to stay at self check-in hotels. These are actually kinda cool. But somewhat eerie to stay at, with no staff around and the breakfast buffet appearing out of nowhere.

For a budget

Liechtenstein is a wealthy country, and surprisingly this also applies to their trail quality. The signposts are beautifully designed and printed on metal, instead of just painted on trees like in Austria. They also flex with benches every 10 minutes, one panorama after the next.

And lastly, but most importantly, they have a few places where you can ignite a campfire: Big metal fire bowls with seats around – and even free firewood! You’d have to bring your own knife and axe to process it, but that is already way more than Austria could offer.

I still heavily regret not taking any pictures or pinning my position on google maps, but the best one was, I believe, between Wangerberg and Triesenberg along the designated path. It featured a fire bowl, seats, free firewood and a small wooden bivouac for up to 2 persons.

47.1131352, 9.5462313 – These are the approximated coordinates. I hope someone might make use of them – and correct me on its actual location!

The next one was next to the Wildschloss Ruin, right before descending towards Vaduz. A fire bowl, free wood and benches are available again. This time no roof, but on a clear night, still a great place to stay at.

Hansi’s Hut seemed to be a privately owned cabin next to Schellenberg. I assume you’d have to get in touch with them, beforehand. But it looked so romantic and cosy from the outside.

The trail

I enjoyed walking this trail. It was so fun to cross borders on a daily basis, being able to just walk in and out of Liechtenstein to Austria and Switzerland. Now I can also claim to have walked through an entire country!

It’s technically possible to walk or run the entire track in one day.
We met one guy who said he ran it twice, took him 13 and 14 hours. But that’s quite something, especially because there are quite steep sections and a few vertical meters to be run uphill.

The panorama was amazing. You had the Alvier and Altmann to your left for the entire first day. In Planken, a parking lot opened up and gave way to an astounding winter wonderland panorama across the valley.

Downsides

In order to cover most of the countries ground, seemingly unnecessary loops and detours were on the agenda. This wouldn’t have been so obvious if the available space wasn’t as limited. A 50m shortcut would have saved a few kilometers. In addition, a lot of the trails path went through civilization. So prepare your feet for asphalt.

But to end this on a high note: The sunset in Liechtenstein is beautiful. The light paints the hills in purple, the valley spreads in front of you, and you can overlook an entire country.