Alsace - Strasbourg or Colmar base?

I love Strasbourg. However, if the focus is Alsace, you need to be central to the adorable wine villages which are much closer to Colmar. Sounds like you have 3 or 4 days. You could take one day to visit Strasbourg via train, and then the other two or three days, visiting Colmar and some of the wine villages.

We're city mice, and Strasbourg suited us to a tee. Never visited Colmar, and don't regret our choices. But then, cute little villages aren't really our thing. Again, city mice.

I agree with jules m. Colmar is very nice and a great base for exploring Alsace. You can easily visit Strasbourg by train from there, as well as your choice of many lovely villages, if you feel like you've seen enough of Colmar. We visited Turckheim by train and Eguisheim and Kaysersberg by bus. It was not complicated and none took more than half a day, although you could absolutely spend more time, of course.

Have a great trip.......we were in Alsace in late November and had an absolutely wonderful time!

I, too, would vote for Strasbourg Colmar is indeed lovely and worth a visit but it's a bit Disney like in terms of being touristy and after a while charming can mean only enjoying the charm.

We were just in Alsace last month for three nights and stayed in Colmar. We were also choosing between Colmar and Strasbourg but selected Colmar just because the flight times to Basel were more convenient for us than to Strasbourg. Having said that I am glad we chose Colmar, as it gets very busy during the day with people on day trips so we were able to enjoy it when it was quieter in the evening. We visited Strasbourg as a day trip which was extremely easy (the train ride was only half an hour) and had enough time to do all the things we wanted to do. The only exception was the cathedral- while we were able to climb it we couldn't go inside as there were adult confirmations going on that day. This wasn't on the website or anything so just be advised the opening times can change without warning, tho I don't think this is very common. As mentioned above it's also very easy to visit some of the nice smaller towns like Riquewihr from Colmar by bus. Honestly I think you will have a nice time either way- good luck with your planning.

Each seems to get an equal number of votes on the forum, so it’s really a personal preference. To me, each is worth 1-1.5 days. We stayed in Colmar because we had a Germany rented vehicle without the environmental sticker needed to drive in Strasbourg, so the decision on which to stay in was an easy one.

In October 2022 I spent a week in Colmar without a car.

Besides biking and walking, you can visit nearby Turckheim by a short bus or train ride.

The Kutzig Bus runs on weekends in October. It does a continuous route to half a dozen wine villages. You can easily visit 2 of the villages including a leisurely lunch in a day. Some people pack in more stops.

For an all day wine tour I can recommend L'Alsaciette. They have several tours to choose from.

I would split the nights between both.

Strasbourg is bigger and has more things to see and do, but Colmar is more centrally located to visit the other Alsace towns.

Colmar is not good as a day trip because it gets overwhelmed with day trippers, it’s nicer in the morning and evenings. Strasbourg has a lot to do to cram into a day trip.

If you stay in only one or the other, you’ll end up shortchanging the one you don’t stay in.

Indeed, Strasbourg is the larger city with a magnificent 1000 year old Cathedral that evolved over time, good dining, a lovely city center to wander and the picturesque “Petite France”neighborhood. And smaller Colmar also has its fine dining and medieval center to wander.

We spent two nights in each and - in mid-to-late September - we e-biked from Strasbourg to Ribeauville for a night and then from Ribeauville to Colmar. We passed through and stopped in many villages, Chateau Haute Koenigsburg and one winery along the way. October would probably be a bit riskier in terms of weather for biking.

You’re in your 30s. Consider 2 nights in Strasbourg to start, then 3 in Colmar and take a day trip via bikes from Colmar, subject to weather, to a few nearby villages, perhaps a loop to Eguisheim, Turckheim and Kaysersburg. If the weather doesn’t work out, look for day trips out from Colmar.

FWIW our TR is at https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sw-germany-e-france-alsace-burgundy-pt-3-of-4

Geographically, Strasbourg is in Alsace and is a bigger city. It has the cathedral and it is a lovely with plenty to see. That said, if you want to visit Alsace, experience Alsace, and enjoy the wine villages, then I'd stay in Colmar. We stayed in Colmar two nights and Eguisheim for three nights. We also visited in October. It was a spectacular trip. We actually visited Strasbourg on a different trip.

I suspect this is like Avignon vs Arles. Everyone has their favorite for various reasons.