☰Vianden

Vianden has a handful of restaurants along the Grand-Rue and near the river, mostly serving Luxembourgish and Ardennes-style food: smoked pork, game in season, trout from local rivers, and the jambon d'Ardenne that appears on menus across the region. The tourist season keeps a small number of places open, but outside summer and weekends, options thin out quickly.

The castle itself has a small cafe on the grounds. For a proper meal, the restaurants on the Grand-Rue are your best option — simple food, reasonable prices, and a view of the castle walls if you get the right table.

Vianden is 40 kilometres northeast of Luxembourg City. By car the drive takes about 45 minutes via Diekirch and Ettelbruck. There is no train station in Vianden — the nearest rail connection is Diekirch, from which Bus 570 connects to Vianden in about 30 minutes.

From Luxembourg City, take the train to Ettelbruck or Diekirch, then the bus onward. The total journey takes about 90 minutes by public transport. Direct bus services run in summer from Luxembourg City on certain routes. The narrow roads into the Our valley make Vianden awkward for coaches, which keeps large group tours infrequent.

Vianden is a small town and most things to do can be covered in a single day. The castle dominates everything — it is one of the finest Romanesque-Gothic fortified castles in the whole of western Europe, and the views from its walls down the Our valley are excellent. Below the castle, the old town's steep streets hold the Victor Hugo House and the small Folklore Museum.

The chairlift from town up to the hill above offers a broader view of the castle and valley than you get from the town itself — the classic postcard view of Vianden with the castle on its rocky spur is taken from the hillside the chairlift serves. The Vianden Pumped Storage Plant, a few kilometres north, is one of the largest in Europe and can be visited.