Overland Travel Across Borders: A Tale of Two Frontiers
Bendern to Haag and Schaanwald to Tisis: The Main Road Crossings
These two are the ones you will actually use. From Feldkirch in Austria you roll straight into Schaanwald on the A13 motorway; the old customs houses still stand empty, now turned into cafés. Further north, the Rhine bridge at Bendern connects Eschen to Haag in Switzerland with nothing more than a faded blue EU circle sign. Swiss and Liechtenstein plates mix freely, buses from Buchs to Vaduz cross every fifteen minutes, and the number 11 postal bus treats the border like it does not exist. You can walk the paved riverside path from Balzers to Trübbach in under an hour and never show a document. Random police checks happen maybe once a year, mostly looking for untaxed cigarettes or alcohol. Bring your passport anyway; technically they can ask.
The Alpine Trails and Smuggler Paths
Dozens of hiking trails and farm tracks cross higher up. The path from Malbun over the Naafkopf ridge drops you into Switzerland near Steg, while the Three Sisters route links Gaflei to the Sargans valley without a single sign. Mountain bikers use the old military roads above Planken that once watched for invaders but now see only goats. In winter ski tourers glide from the Liechtenstein side of the Drei Schwestern straight onto Swiss slopes. Locals still joke about the days before 1923 when farmers carried butter and tobacco and coffee across these passes at night to dodge duties. Today the only thing you might carry back is a cheaper bottle of wine from Coop in Buchs or fresh Liechtenstein postage stamps.
Drive, cycle, or walk: the border never stops you. You simply leave one postcard valley and arrive in another, with the same cows, the same church bells, and the same perfect silence.