The majority of visitors to the tourist office on Place Guillaume II come for a map of the city, says Ralph Pletsch, who has worked at the LCTO since 2019. Others come seeking further information on the capital’s sights and attractions - including Luxembourgers themselves looking for guided walks or other ideas. Pletsch says he often recommends the Wenzel or Vauban tours, as well as other self-guided walks across the country.
A particular highlight for tourists are the tours of the Grand Ducal palace, according to Voss. Tour groups are permitted in the palace up to seven times a day and are regularly sold out. But it is not just the lives of Luxembourg’s royals attracting visitors to the capital - the historical ‘casemates’, particularly the tunnels around the Bock and the “gëlle Fra” memorial are magnets for tourists, both from at home and abroad.
“The Pétrusse tunnels are much narrower and closed in compared to the Bock tunnels, and they take you all the way down through the fortifications to the Pétrusse Valley,” explains the LCTO’s Tanja Bollendorf.
As well as the city’s well-known sights, the LCTO also coordinates tours around the capital’s districts. Bollendorf says the City Promenade is a classic with tourists, while during the summer holidays, tours aimed at families take place, guiding visitors to the city’s most stunning views, or across its UNESCO heritage sites.
The majority of foreign visitors hail from Germany in the summertime, as well as France, Holland, Spain and Portugal. Voss says there are also frequently large tour groups from Asia or the USA, although these have reduced slightly in recent times. Contrary to what you may expect, Luxembourg’s poor weather this summer has failed to deter tourists from visiting the capital, according to tourism statistics.
For more information on exploring the city or discovering it from a new perspective, visit www.lcto.lu or simply stop by the tourist office itself.
Video report in Luxembourgish:
