In this “Travel SMART” series of articles we discuss real-world travel plans for exploring popular locations in a cost-effective manner. SMART evaluates the Staying options, Mobility, Attractions, ROI (Return-On-Investment) and Transport options for planning the trip. This article focuses on travel plan based from Luxembourg City.
Transport options – Luxembourg City is the capital of the small nation of Luxembourg located at the heart of Western Europe. The city is about 200 km (130 miles) from Brussels, Belgium and Cologne, Germany as well as 3 hours of train travel from Amsterdam, Netherlands and Paris, France.
Staying options – Luxembourg city is generally ranked as one of the richest country in the world by per capita income. The city also frequently ranks top 10 on the list for personal safety and quality of living in global city surveys. Considering these facts, staying options in Luxembourg are surprisingly affordable when compared with similar developed countries like Switzerland. For our stay, we selected the “Double Tree By Hilton Luxembourg“, a large hotel just outside the city with a public bus stop within few minutes walk.
Mobility – Traveling around Luxembourg City is best done with public transportation and its free! You can download the efficient bus route and timetable from Google or similar search engines. Selecting a hotel near a public bus stop and exploring the city’s beautiful gardens, castles and other attractions using bus, tram and walking is a smart way to enjoy Luxembourg City.
Attractions – The city is small enough to be explored within 2-3 days. Some of the notable attractions to visit in the city includes – the historic Villa Haute with the Fortress of Luxembourg and underground passage to the beautiful garden, Notre-Dame Cathedral, The World War II Memorial, Grand Ducal Palace and Gelle Fra.
As mentioned above, Luxembourg is also within 2-3 hours proximity by car or train to Amsterdam, Cologne, Paris and Brussels. Thus, you can make this city an ideal base to explore multiple countries and major cities in Northern Europe!
ROI (Return On Investment) – Some factors when evaluating Luxembourg city’s ROI are – free public transportation, affordable hotel options and proximity to some popular destinations in north western Europe. We found the following steps made our travel plan for Luxembourg as a key destination, gave us a high ROI!
- Drive into Luxembourg with a rental car, preferably from the Netherlands (i.e Amsterdam Schipol Airport) or Germany (i.e Cologne Airport) which offers better rental rates than France. If not driving, use train from nearby major cities like Paris, Cologne, Amsterdam or Brussels to reach the city.
- Save on meals by option for a hotel with free breakfast options.
- Save on Overall transport cost by using the free public transportation within Luxembourg City and using a rental car when venturing out to nearby countries.
- Drive from Luxembourg to popular tourist destinations like Bruges and Ghent in Belgium, Cologne or Trier in Germany or Maastricht in Netherlands – all within 2-2.5 hours driving range.
- For farther major destinations like Paris and Amsterdam and busy cities like Brussels take a fast train.
Watch the video tour below for a walk exploring part of beautiful Luxembourg city.
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