Liechtenstein Summary

Only slightly larger than Manhattan island, Liechtenstein is the world’s fourth-smallest country. It’s a quiet, unassuming place, ruled over by His Serene Highness Prince Hans Adam II, and has made a mint from nursing some Sfr90 billion in its numbered bank accounts, a living that has inevitably laid it open to accusations of dubious practice. Money-laundering aside, the main reason to visit is inevitably the novelty value. You have to feel sorry for little VADUZ, labouring under the weight of being capital of a historical oddity: the tiny town bulges with glass-plated banks and squadrons of whistle-stop visitors aimless with anticlimax. Central hub is the post office, where all buses stop, midway between the two parallel main streets, Äulestrasse and pedestrianized Städtle. Facing it is the sleek new Kunstmuseum (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm, Thurs until 8pm; Sfr5; www.kunstmuseum.li), holding the world-famous private art collection inherited – and added to – by the prince, which includes exquisite works by Rubens, Rembrandt and others. Perched picturesquely on the forested hillside above the town is the prince’s restored sixteenth-century castle (no public access). If you have some time to spare, catch bus #10 to Liechtenstein’s sole mountain resort of MALBUN, a small, blissfully quiet retreat up at 1602m.