10 Surprising Things I Learned in Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein is full of secrets. Let’s explore 10 surprising things you probably didn’t know about Liechtenstein.

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👋 I’m Alejandro, based in Madrid and London. I’ve travelled to 80+ countries, lived in 4 countries in the last 10 years and speak 4 languages. I make weekly videos around the world.

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– Until very recently, this tiny country was the
least-visited country in Europe. Only 85,000 people a
year were coming here. And this is crazy, given its
stunning mountain scenery, all green areas, castles everywhere, like the one I have behind. So I came all the way
to give you 10 facts. So hopefully you can extend
your trip a bit longer. So welcome to Liechtenstein. (energetic string music) Behind me, we have the residence
and castle of the Prince. Remember that Liechtenstein is ruled by the Prince Hans-Adam II. And he’s one of the wealthiest monarchs. He even runs his own private bank. Actually, the prince has
more political control than any other monarch in Europe. He’s able to appoint judges, veto laws, and call a referendum. Back in 2003, he held a
referendum to increase his power. He was threatening people
to leave to Vienna. He was gonna sell everything to Bill Gates or anyone else who could afford this. But besides his wealth, you can regularly spot him
running and running the area and saying “Hoi!” to people, like saying hi to people, and yeah, pretty accessible person. (lively music) No airport, but
world-class transportation. In fact, there’s only one main road. So the government is encouraging everyone to take public transport. 25 Swiss francs, which is $25, 25 euros. Very, very similar. For the day, that is, to jump on the bus as
many times as we want. So let me tell you, as I mentioned before, there’s no airport here,
but there’s a very easy way. So you need to fly to Zurich, and from Zurich, you take
the train to Sargans, less than one hour. And from there you just
take the bus to Vaduz, which is the capital. You can make your base over there, do day trip, start
trekking, and that’s it. Liechtenstein has a reputation of being such a tiny country, that a lot of people do day trips here. From my perspective, that’s a mistake. So we’re staying for a
couple of nights here, and we still think it’s not enough, because you cannot stay in Vaduz only, which is the capital and main city here. So this is a country that
is very rich in nature, mountains, outdoor activities. You have mountains, you have
snow, you have green areas, a lot of interesting Alpine activities, trails and trekking,
skiing, enjoying the views. So here’s my recommendation: if you don’t like to walk at all then you can stay in Vaduz, the capital. Maybe a day is enough, you can
see the gallery, the museum, have a little coffee over there, just walk around, enjoy the views, and that’s it, good to go. But if you enjoy walking
and outdoor activities, then this is a place to
stay much more than one day. Right now, we’re in Malbun,
this is a ski resort. The ski season’s coming to an end, you can see that the snow is melting. And you have a lot of trails here, which can easily take you
a couple of hours to do. And then if you do a day
trip, how do you do that? That’s why I recommend
to stay more than one day if you enjoy walking
and outdoor activities. But yeah, it’s a small country. And if you really need to cross
it off your list, go for it. (lively music) Okay, so this country is seriously small. It’s the sixth smallest
country in the world, the fourth smallest in Europe, and the population is
less than 38,000 people. And it’s only 62 square miles. And because this country
is so long and skinny, you can literally walk it very fast, or you can take the bus as well. It’s everything well connected,
you will always have a bus. For example, as we were in
Vaduz, which is the capital, we only took the bus here to
Malbun, which is a ski resort, and it’s just half an hour away. (lively music) Fun fact, this country’s so small that Switzerland, the neighbor country, which is always neutral, invaded this country a
few times by accident, and Liechtenstein didn’t
even realize about this. There’s no military. The last operation took
place centuries ago. And there’s a legend or a story saying that they went with 80 men to war, and no one was killed or injured. And in fact, they found
an Italian on the way, and they brought him back, and
he wanted to join the army. So they came back, being 81. That’s the safest country in the world. So I need to respect that. And I will fly far away from
the Prince Hans-Adam II. Now it’s time to head
back to a different place, because remember what I said before. Liechtenstein is not about the capital, and shopping,
and all these sort of things. It’s about trails, outdoor activities. That’s what we’re doing. You know, what’s funny is that when we went to the tourism center, they told us not to come to this place, because it’s snowing and we
needed the right equipment. And they were right.
They were totally right. We still wanted to see
this place. And no regrets. (lively music) Yeah, I know. Looks beautiful. But if you wanna get the citizenship here, you need to wait 30 years. And they only give a very limited
amount of those every year for European citizens. So there’s another way. If you marry a citizen from
here, from this country, then you can skip the queue, and you can get it in five years. Or one more trick. They can vote for you. So that your local community will vote if you provide value to the community, and if they agree, you
can also skip the queue. Most people that work here
from international companies, they are not based in this country. They commute from Switzerland,
Austria, and so on. Whatever method you follow, you just need to know if you get the citizenship here, you just need to get rid of
all your other citizenships. You can only have one. Every area looks wealthy here. And it’s obviously because it’s the richest country
in the world, per capita. Of course, when these
countries are so small, you always talk about per capita. But still, that’s impressive.
No doubts about that. Because the corporate tax is 12.5%, and unemployment rate, 1.5%. Can you imagine that? I always check videos
and I read some articles before coming to any country or city. And there were some articles saying, “The most boring country I’ve ever been.” And hey, come on. It’s the most boring country because you haven’t
traveled within the country. If you stay in Vaduz, the capital, of course you’re gonna get bored, because it’s not such a big thing. You cannot think like, “Oh,
I’m gonna do some shopping. I’m gonna discover this
place, the other place.” It’s just a quiet place. This is a country where
people do trails, trekking, ski, outdoor activities. If you get bored, that means that you don’t
wanna explore the country. Every year on the 15th of August, it’s the National Day here. And the Prince invites you to this castle, to his home, for a private party. To you, to me, and to everyone here. And if you are turning 18, you even have the right to
come for a private party to celebrate your birthday. And let’s be honest. This is probably the
only country in the world who can throw a party
like this, by a ruler. But if you know any other
countries doing this, please let me know in the comments. (lively music) (alarm beeps)
(lively violin music) So you thought the nap
was only in Spain? No. In Liechtenstein, this is actually a law. Well, not an official law, but a recommendation from the government not to make noise from noon to 1:30 PM. So if you come here to live, then you should know, 12 to 1:30, you cannot really make noises. Nothing really bothering
people at this time, because it’s resting time generally. So, yeah, so next time you
crack jokes about Spain, and being lazy and all that, hmm, the nap is important, actually. Helps you recover. So Liechtenstein, a
German-speaking country, also has this. And of course, things are
expensive in Liechtenstein, because we’re very, very
close to Switzerland. So for example, our hotel
was like 235-240 euros or dollars or Swiss francs per night. It’s not an Airbnb, so I’m
sure there’s cheaper options, but still, I just want to
highlight that you need to know you’re very, very close to Switzerland. – Yeah, and did you enjoy your most expensive vegan
burger in your life? – [Ale] Gosh, last night we had that. I think we paid 30- – [Kris] 31, I think. – 31 Swiss francs, euros, dollars. Yeah, I mean, it was delicious, but yeah, when you come here, you know, you pay for a salad $15, and it’s what it is. This is where you are. – [Kris] We are a bit spoiled
because we live in Spain, and the prices are not that
high as in Northern Europe. – But even Northern Europe, it’s not that crazy like Switzerland. – Well, it’s-
– Like Sweden, – Sweden was-
– Stockholm. Yeah, it was more expensive. But I feel like it’s not crazy,
like probably Switzerland. There’s a reason why these
countries are so wealthy and everything is so
well-structured, organized, planned. The crime rate is so low. I think you also need to pay for all that. So it makes sense for
things to be that expensive. – You also pay for security. For example, we are taking this bus, like we took like three,
four times the bus, and no one even checked your ticket. We had bought this pass, and we were like, okay, when
are they going to check? And no one checked the whole day. – Yeah, I think you see the
difference also in mentality. They told us that they check from time to time, not very often. But when you go to countries like France, you can see straight away, like you have this
“contrôleur”(controller) if you jump on the subway. They do that very often, anyway. – They expect you to respect
the rules in Liechtenstein. – I guess at some point
the fines were so expensive that people stopped trying to
cheat, or doing these things. And I guess it just became natural. – I take it as a positive thing, because that’s how the
society should work. – All right. Thanks
for watching till here. And as always, see you next week.