Best Dog-Friendly Hotels in Luxembourg

Before you go

What happens when you get there

Your dog travels free

Free national transport covers the dog too, and it's written into the regulation rather than being a local habit. The conditions are worth knowing before you board: an animal is admitted if it can be held on your lap or placed as hand luggage without inconveniencing other passengers, small animals in a cage, box or basket are admitted provided no other passenger objects, a dog too large to sit on your lap stays on a lead on the floor, and a dog that might bother or endanger people around it must be muzzled. Animals don't take up seats or sit in the aisle. The free travel stops at the border, so cross-border trains to Trier, Metz, Thionville and Arlon need a ticket from the border onward and the foreign operator's animal rules then apply.

Getting there

Luxembourg Findel is six kilometres east of the city and the airport bus into town is part of the free network. Luxair, the home carrier, takes dogs and cats up to 8 kg including the crate in the cabin, with the crate no larger than 45 x 23 x 25 cm or 45 x 42 x 20 cm, at EUR 80 per flight per animal in economy and free in business, booked at least 72 hours ahead with form H402 for cabin or H184 for hold. The catch for British travellers is that Luxair carries no pets, in cabin or hold, to or from the United Kingdom, and none in the hold to or from Paris Charles de Gaulle. Most people bring the dog in by road or rail instead, which Luxembourg's position makes easy.

The Mullerthal Trail

The reason to bring a dog to Luxembourg, and the only place in the country where anyone has written the rule down. The regional tourist office says the Mullerthal is a dog-friendly region, that dogs are allowed on all the trails if they're leashed, that assistance dogs are always allowed anywhere, and that on hot days dogs can cool off in the water. It's 112 kilometres over three routes through sandstone gorges. The thing to plan for is that parts of Route 2 around Berdorf involve ladders and narrow rock clefts a big dog won't climb, with the Wollefsschlucht steps out of Echternach and the Kuelscheier passage near Consdorf the awkward ones.

Walking in the city

The Chemin de la Corniche, the rampart walk above the Alzette, is a public street with no ticket, no gate and no dog rule, open at any hour, running about 600 metres from the Bock to the Plateau du Rham. Below it the Pétrusse valley has been renatured with the stream back on the surface, and the path runs from Avenue Marie-Thérèse under the Pont Adolphe and the viaducts through to the Grund. Together they make a two hour loop through the whole fortress without leaving the city. The Pfaffenthal panoramic lift and the Pfaffenthal-Kirchberg funicular both link the two levels and both are part of the free network on the same animal terms.

Dogs in restaurants

There's no national rule and it's decided venue by venue, but Luxembourg leans permissive and the hotels' own wording shows it. Le Place d'Armes tags all three of its outlets as accepting animals, Mama Shelter accepts dogs in the restaurant, bakery and rooftop bar, and the Trail-Inn accepts them in every area of the hotel. The other direction is just as clear: Hotel Bel-Air, Hotel Meyer and Château d'Urspelt all keep dogs out of their dining rooms. On the Place d'Armes and the Grund terraces in summer you'll see dogs under most tables.

Vianden

The prettiest town in the country and the hardest one to stay in with a dog. Almost every hotel in Vianden is recorded as not allowing pets, which is why none of them is on our list, and the castle's own visitor page says dogs are not permitted inside out of consideration for the historic rooms. The grounds and the approach walk are fine, so one of you waits outside if you want to see the interior. The chairlift publishes no animal policy at all, so ring the operator rather than planning around it.

Casemates and river cruises

Two things visitors book that have no published answer. Neither the Bock Casemates nor the Pétrusse Casemates says anything about dogs on the city tourist office pages, so ask at the ticket desk, and bear in mind the Bock tunnels are narrow, dark and full of worn stone steps, which is a practical problem before it's a policy one. On the Moselle, neither Navitours at Remich nor the MS Princesse Marie-Astrid publishes a dog policy, so the Remich to Schengen and Grevenmacher runs both need a phone call first.

Vets

Clinique Vétérinaire Bereldange at 29 Am Becheler, about six kilometres north of the city centre, states on its own site that it handles emergencies 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on +352 33 40 33, with routine hours weekdays 07.30 to 19.00 and Saturday 09.00 to 17.00. If you're walking the Mullerthal, the number to have in your phone is Déierepraxis Mëllerdall in Berdorf, +352 79 90 92, listed by the regional tourist office as 24 hours. In Echternach, the practice at 1A rue Dierwies is on +352 72 03 64-1.

Best walks

In the capital, the Chemin de la Corniche and the Pétrusse valley path make a two hour loop through the fortress, with the Grund and the Clausen riverside continuing past the old brewery quarter towards Neudorf. The Parc municipal Edouard André runs about a kilometre along the old ramparts on Boulevard Royal, Park Dräi Eechelen wraps the ramparts around Fort Thüngen on Kirchberg, the Parc de Merl is the proper municipal park in Belair and the Bambësch beech forest is the big wood north west of the city. Outside it, the Mullerthal Trail is 112 kilometres of sandstone gorge walking on a lead, with the Schiessentümpel triple waterfall, the Hohllay cave and the Räuberhöhle among the set pieces. In the north the Sûre riverside path runs flat from Bourscheid-Plage and the climb to Bourscheid castle takes about 45 minutes, while the Weiswampach lakes have a flat perimeter path and the Éislek plateau tracks run for kilometres beyond them. On the Moselle, the Remich Esplanade promenade runs more than a kilometre each way along the river and the Markusbierg vineyard trail climbs through the vines behind Schengen.

When to go

Luxembourg is landlocked, so the swimming water is lakes rather than sea: Echternach lake with its flat 3.5 kilometre circuit, the Weiswampach lakes in the north and the Upper Sûre lake at Lultzhausen and Insenborn. Supervised bathing areas at those lakes may restrict dogs in season and none of the operators publishes a rule we could read, so check locally rather than assume. Otherwise this is a year-round destination for a dog, because the walking is trails, ramparts and river paths rather than anything seasonal, and nothing in this catalogue is recorded as closing for the winter. Warm weather is the one thing worth planning for on the Mullerthal Trail, where the regional office points out that dogs can cool off in the water on hot days.