Lee Trail: Hiking 52km in Luxembourg

In July of 2023, I completed my first multi-day backpacking trip on the Lee Trail in Luxembourg.

Oh boy, what an experience! Who knew Luxembourg has so much to offer 🤩

In this guide, I’ll share my experience & recommendations 🏕

Let’s dive in! 🙌

Preparation for the Lee Trail

It’s not a very long trail, but it being my first multi-day trip, I put quite some preparation in.

Offline map

I used Komoot to navigate on trail, and downloaded the complete Lee Trail for offline use.

This proved to be very handy several times. The trail is well marked, but it’s still easy to take a wrong turn if you don’t pay attention.

Food

There are no supermarkets along the trail, so I wanted to make sure to bring enough food for the full three days.

I took two dinners, three times breakfast, and a shitload of snacks 😋

I knew it was going to be roughly 25-30C every day, and I didn’t want to carry a very heavy food bag, so I decided to prepare some simple meals at home that only needed to have water added to them.

Here’s what I took:

• Dinner: mashed potatoes with cashew
• Dinner: couscous curry with coconut & nuts
• Breakfast: overnight oats with dried fruit
• Snacks: Snickers, energy bars, nuts, pudding, etc.

I didn’t use everything in the end because I ate at the Thai food stand at Camping du Nord and got some fresh buns for breakfast at Camping du Moulin de Bourscheid 🤤

However, I think it’s still important to bring enough in case something is closed. There are no supermarkets nearby.

Water

I didn’t prepare anything for water, and thought carrying two liters of water would be enough, but it was exceptionally hot during my time there and I really struggled because it wasn’t possible to buy water anywhere.

I luckily had some water purification tablets in my first aid kit that I could use to safely drink from streams.

I would definitely recommend bringing a water filter because there are so many water streams, which will help with lowering your pack weight too by not having to carry too much water.

Campings

Since wild camping is illegal in Luxembourg, I wanted to pre-book the campings to make sure I had a spot for the night.

I emailed the campings, and got a confirmation from both Camping du Moulin de Bourscheid & Camping Kautenbach right away.

(no pre-payments needed, nice)

Camping du Nord wanted an additional €15 reservation fee for their already expensive trekking field, so I decided to just try my luck there on the day itself.

I’ll tell you more about my experience on these campings later on.

Pack list

For this hike you don’t need anything extra in particular like you might do on high elevations.

Because it was going to be so hot I also didn’t bring a down jacket or any additional layers.

Here’s a list of what I brought for the Lee Trail:

• Tent: Durston X-Mid 1P
• Sleeping pad: Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite MAX
• Sleeping bag: old synthetic Dutch Mountain bag (so heavy!)
• Backpack: borrowed Vaude
• Cooking: Trangia Spirit Burner + Trangia kettle
• Trekking poles: Black Diamond Cork Trekking
• Clothing: 2 shirts, 1 underwear, 2 pair socks, trousers, shorts, rain jacket
• Shoes: Altra Lone Peak 7 Wide
• First aid kit: plasters, bandage, water purification tablets, medical tape, ibuprofen
• Food: 2 dinner, 3 breakfast, 3 coffee, snacks
• Toiletries: toothbrush, toothpaste pills, all-purpose soap

All of the above, plus some other small things, weighed 10,3 kilo in total.

I could definitely save some weight on future hikes by getting a lighter sleeping bag and backpack, but I wanted to try this out first before committing to buying expensive lightweight gear 💪

Trip report

Let’s talk about how it went 🤓

Day 1 – Ettelbrück to Bourscheid-Moulin

Distance: 17,8km • Elevation: ↑600m ↓570m • Moving time: 5.5 hours

The day started off with driving to Kautenbach and parking the car there before taking the train to Ettelbrück.

There’s a free parking lot on both sides of the train station with roughly 30 spots each.

Unfortunately when I arrived, it was completely full and I had to find another spot next to the playground in the center of Kautenbach.

It wasn’t a huge problem, but I missed the train due to a 10-minute walk back to the station, and had to wait a full hour for the next one. Whoops!

After the wait was over, I hopped into the free train and finally started the hike at 11:45.

(all public transport is free in Luxembourg)

From the train station it’s a 5 minute walk to the point where the trail starts and goes into the forest.

There isn’t a huge starting sign, but a small path with the trails signage next to it: blue rectangle with white wave.

I was pretty excited, knowing my first multi-day hiking adventure was getting started! 🥳

The hike started off with going over a hill, crossing the Sûre for the first time, passing through the small village of Erpeldange, and passing by some very muscular cows 🐄

After that, it was mostly foresty trails until the Predigtstuhl viewpoint.

I really loved the view here, really nice with the Sûre.

Unfortunely, right after that happy moment, I made a BIG mistake 🤯

I continued the trail after the viewpoint, and realized I walked in the wrong direction after I walked alllll the way down to the road.

Shit! This meant I had to walk back up this very steep trail again 😓

Usually not a huge problem, but it was crazy hot and I was running out of time before the reception of the camping was closing 🤐

Apparently to continue the trail, I had to walk 20 meters back from the viewpoint where there is another path. Meh!

So after getting back up, I continued the hike and picked up the pace a bit.

I realised I would still arrive too late, so I called the camping and they said arriving later is no problem. Nice.

Two hours later, I reached Gringlay View Point, which overlooked the campground where I was going to stay that night. And to spice things up, I got front-row seats to watch some paragliders take off – awesome! 🪂😄

After sitting there for a bit, I descended to the camping, which was quite steep!

Definitely felt my knees after hiking the whole day already.

On the camping, I got a veryyy friendly welcome from Martijn, and he gave me a nice spot at the river since it was a bit more quiet during that time anyway. Very grateful for that!

(the trekking field is in the back, a bit away from the river)

There’s also a restaurant, but it was unfortunately closed when I got there.

But luckily there was a vending machine with ice cold drinks.

Can you feel my pain, when I could almost taste it, and my can got stuck like this? Lol.

Luckily Martijn came to the rescue quickly and brought me that well deserved Fanta 😋

The camping itself is really nice, and I really enjoyed my evening there.

There’s a small dam at the end of the camping, where you can swim because the water is a bit deeper there. Soooo refreshing!

After my swim, it was time to make dinner and call it a night.

The first day is done! 💪😄

Day 2 – Bourscheid-Moulin to Goebelsmuhle

Distance: 15.3km • Elevation: ↑575m ↓579m • Moving time: 5 hours

After getting some freshly baked buns at the camping, I was ready to start the day 😄

The trails continued a bit along the Sûre, and then quickly goes (rather steep!) up.

After some shadowy narrow forest trails, you have to pass some beautiful grain and corn fields to get to the Napoleon tree.

This is basically the halfway point, and I took a nice 1-hour break.

Plenty of time to eat lunch, and to let my tent and clothes dry 🤓

(Tip: Avoid leaving your clothes outside near a river overnight; mine got soaking wet from the morning dew, lol)

This felt like the highest point of the day, so many wide open views.

Saw lots of others hikers passing by here, everyone asking me if I camped here because my tent was out, haha.

After the Napoleon tree it’s pretty much down down down to Dirbach.

Make sure to stop at Rouschtert viewpoint, which gives you a nice view over the valley. It’s only a 50 meter detour from the trail.

The trail after the viewpoint gets really nice, and you have to take a narrow trail with great views into the direction of Dirbach. I loved this part!

There’s a really cool rock formation called Doigt de Dieu, which means Finger of God.

If you look up and down from there, you see that it’s some kind of natural wall striking through the mountain. Very cool.

When you get all the way down, you’re greeted by the attractive Sûre again 🙂

It was steaming hot that day, so I was very happy to take a dip!

Continuing the trail, you have to pass over the bridge in front of Dirbach Plage, a hotel where you can also have a drink on their terrace.

This is the only terrace you pass by on the Lee Trail, so treat yourself! 😋

It’s then one more time steep up, walking through some forest, walking steep down before getting to Camping du Nord.

I didn’t make a reservation here because they asked a €15 reservation fee, but luckily enough the whole trekking field was completely empty.

And look at the nice spot I got! 🤩

The rest of the camping looked a bit more cramped together, but the trekking field was wide and spacious.

And what was also cool, is that there was a little food stand where you could get very tasty Thai food 🍽

I was crazy hungry, so I got two dishes and a cold Singha, yum 😋

And then it was time for another night in my trusty Durston X-Mid tent.

Although a bit pricey, I really enjoyed this camping.

What a day!

Day 3 – Goebelsmuhle to Kautenbach

Distance: 24.3km • Elevation: ↑1030m ↓1014m • Moving time: 7.5 hours

Everyone I met on trail kept telling me this was supposed to be the most beautiful day, so I’m excited! 🤩

It’s also the longest day at 24km, so I made sure to start early.

The trail started off by going up a hill immediately after the nearest train station, where I quickly got treated on some nice views.

After conquering that first hill, it goes down into a really nice forest where you’ll pass a part of the Klangwanderweg (Sound Trail).

I didn’t know this was going to be here, but it was pretty fun to try out all the sculptures and installations 😄

But now I was in for a treat!

This is the famous mountain ridge people told me about, and it definitely delivered.

I was already impressed by the view when you just get out of the forest to the bottom of the ridge.

But as you walk to Horscheid, you’ll walk over another kilometer over this ridge or so.

Pictures don’t really do it justice, so here’s a short video:

After that epic ridge I quickly crossed the small town of Horscheid because there was not much going on.

The trail continued through some nice forests, and more installations of the Klangwanderweg. Be sure to try them out, it’s fun! 😄

Then, a whole while later, I suddenly spotted the ridge again, but now from the other side!

How cool? Didn’t expect that, but it does make sense when you look on the map, haha.

Then, what followed next, was realllllly nice.

A lush green forest, a narrow trail, light shining through the tall trees.

It had something magical somehow, and I loved walking here so much.

When I got out of the forest, I had to cross some fields and found a cool little lookout hut from which there was a spectacular panorama of the surroundings.

I was also steaming hot, so it was nice to sit here in the shade with a nice breeze for a while.

Continueing, I had to walk pretty steep down towards the Sûre.

Thinking back, this was probably the trickiest part of the whole Lee Trail.

It was very steep, loose gravel, and slipping would probably mean falling down 50 meters or so.

I loved the challenge, but I was happy to have my hiking poles for some extra balance on these steep parts 😅

And then, after crossing a few more forests & open fields, I made it back to Kautenbach!

You can probably see it on the look at my face, but oh I was so proud!

The Lee Trail completed, and with that my first multi-day hike! 🤩

After completing the hike I didn’t want to drive back home straight away, so I spend two more nights at Camping Kautenbach.

Here’s my spot on their trekking field, which was very spacious.

Ohh boy, was I tired! I basically dropped dead immediately after arriving on the camping 😋

But it was definitely a happy kind of tired 🤗

Afterthoughts

I had such a blast! I liked doing this even more than I thought I would 🤗

Just hiking from place to place with everything I needed on my back had something special.

I also loved talking to the other people on the trail, because almost everyone was doing the same thing as I was doing.

Usually when I go for day hikes everyone is doing something slightly different. There was some kind of feeling of community to this, especially when bumping into people multiple times during several days.

Definitely want to do this more often!

But next time, I would love to do a hike where you can wild camp 🏕

That would be more flexible because it was slightly annoying that I always had to arrive by a certain time before the receptions of the campings were closing.

Otherwise, I would’ve taken longer breaks during the day and hike in the evening when it was a bit cooler.

But on the other side, it was very nice to be able to take a warm shower at the end of the day 🛀

We’ll see next time! 😄

More photos

A picture says more than a thousand words, so let me show you a couple more photos of my time on the Lee Trail 😋