Advice for central location in Alsasce for 5 nights

We love the Alsace region and travel there often. We have stayed many times in Strasbourg and a few times in Colmar. While we love Colmar, we have found that Strasbourg has more to offer as far as restaurant choices and things to do, as well as ease of day trips. While a car is pretty essential for visits to the smaller wine towns of Riquewihr and Ribeauville, (unless you do a day tour), the train is a great car-less option. Across the border in Germany, places that are easily accessible by train include Gengenbach, Baden Baden, Heidelberg, to name a few. Colmar is easily reached by train, and Equisheim is easily reached from there by taxi. (5 min.?) My niece and her young daughter just did this trip and loved it. There is so much to see in the area. Strasbourg is a lovely city, with the cathedral, La Petite, the river and so much to offer. It is larger that all the other places, but with a car you do have more options if you are looking for a smaller village.

Thank you so much. Your response is really helpful!

As JR noted, it depends on whether you will have a car. Strasbourg is a very good base to stay with the most options for lodging and food, and depending on what day trips you want, you really don't need a car. The German towns nearby have excellent train service from Strasbourg and make for some easy day trips. Gengenbach is beautiful with a lot to see and do. Also towns like Colmar are easily reached by train. If that works for you, it would probably be easier (and cheaper) to rent the car in Reims for your sightseeing there, then return it and take the train to Strasbourg, and branch out from there.

However, if you want to travel to some of the smaller villages, then a car does come in handy.

Unless you can find a village ( which would be my preference ), I’d stay in Colmar. Smaller than Strasbourg, making it easier to get out of town with the car. I think a car is a good idea to visit all the villages

Mardee had a good point about turning the car back in to Reims. You will avoid a drop off fee. If you want to see the smaller wine towns, rent a car for the day and do so. We did that and it worked out great. As mentioned, there are loads of day trips you can do via train. There are car rentals at the train station and one a couple blocks away where we rented. Easy out and easy return.

We were in Alsace last March and stayed in Colmar, which we thought was delightful. It was super easy to travel to many of the small villages via bus. The tourist office gave us a bus schedule and told us where the bus stopped. I believe we paid on the bus. The bus took a loop around many of the villages and you can get on and off whenever you want to. We took the bus to Ribeauville, hiked up to three castle ruins on the hill, had lunch, then walked to Riquewihr via Hunawihr. We caught the bus back to Colmar from there. We could have taken the bus to Riquiewihr and visited additional towns on the bus route, but we thought this was plenty. Another day we took a super quick train ride to Turckheim, another village in the area, and a longer ride to Munster, a larger town. There were other towns we could have visited by bus or train, but we did not have the time. Honestly, they all look similar, so we were satisfied.

I'm sure a car would give you more flexibility, but you can see plenty without one if that is your preference.