Liechtenstein
Malbun
An entire ski resort tucked inside a country you can drive across in twenty minutes.
Malbun sits in a high valley at 1,600 metres, ringed by peaks and reachable only by a single winding road from Vaduz. In winter, snow blankets the compact ski area and silence fills the gaps between chairlift hums. In summer, the same slopes become hiking meadows scattered with gentian and edelweiss.
Liechtenstein's only ski resort is also one of Europe's most intimate. The ski area covers just 23 kilometres of piste, served by a handful of lifts — enough for a full day without ever feeling crowded. The resort village is genuinely small: a cluster of hotels and restaurants around a central car park, with the slopes starting right outside the door. Summer transforms Malbun into a base for alpine hikes — the Augstenberg summit, the Pfälzerhütte mountain refuge, and the Naafkopf tripoint are all accessible from here. The Galina Falconry Centre rehabilitates injured birds of prey and offers flying displays against a backdrop of peaks — a rare sight at altitude.
Solo
Solo skiers and hikers will appreciate the lack of crowds. The ski area is small enough to cover in a day, and summer trails climb into high-altitude solitude within thirty minutes.
Couple
The resort's intimacy works for couples — quiet evening meals in mountain restaurants, shared ski days without lift queues, and sunset walks along valley trails.
Family
Gentle nursery slopes and a compact village mean children are always within sight. The falconry centre is a highlight, and the walking trails are manageable for younger legs.
Friends
A group can ski the entire resort in a morning, then hike to the Pfälzerhütte for fondue. The scale makes it easy to stay together without planning.
- The ski area is small enough that families never lose sight of each other — gentle slopes, short lift queues.
- Summer hiking trails start right from the village centre, climbing into alpine meadows within twenty minutes.
- Ski runs drop from 2,000 metres through open bowls where you can hear the silence between turns.
- The whole resort sits in a high valley — no through traffic, no crowds, just mountain air and snow.
Mountain hut Rösti — shredded potato crisped in butter — topped with melted Malbun alpine cheese.
Hot chocolate thick enough to coat a spoon, served in ski lodges with panoramic valley views.
Pedra de Lume
Cape Verde
Float in a salt lake inside an extinct volcano, crater walls rising on every side.
Vale do Paúl
Cape Verde
Sugarcane terraces spill down a volcanic crater into the greenest valley in the archipelago.
Monastery of St. Anthony
Egypt
Earth's oldest inhabited monastery, wedged into a Red Sea mountain canyon since the fourth century.
Hoang Su Phi
Vietnam
Rice terraces so vertiginous they look like topographical maps carved directly into the sky.
Gafadura
Liechtenstein
Cheese made by hand in a stone hut older than the principality, at the cloud line.
Fürstensteig
Liechtenstein
Steel cables on exposed ridgeline, a sheer drop into Austria one side, Switzerland the other.
Alte Rheinbrücke
Liechtenstein
Forty paces across a covered wooden bridge — Liechtenstein one end, Switzerland the other, Rhine below.
Vaduz
Liechtenstein
A capital so small you can walk its length in fifteen minutes, a castle watching overhead.