Beaune or Dijon for visiting Burgundy?

Rick Steves' guide books are no comprehensive rather he picks excellent representative cities and towns to feature. Dijon is a small city(150,000), Beaune a large town, 20,000 pop. There is no right or wrong but make sure you visit the other one ,where you're not staying, too.

We debated between Beaune and Dijon, too. We ended up choosing Beaune and following Rick's excellent advice for touring this pretty town and riding bikes through the vineyards. We were very happy with our decision and plan on visiting Dijon next time.

Dijon, as previous comment says, is a city. It's got a lot of options for dining, things to see and do. When I visited Beaune, which was more than 20 years ago, it was the size of a village, very charming, but mostly attractive for the surrounding vineyards.

Other towns in the region you might consider are Dole and Besancon. You can research these and Dijon online and in a more comprehensive tour guide like Lonely Planet.

I have visited both. Here is some information to help you to make your choice.

Beaune is small. You can probably exhaust its main sights in half a day. But by that token it is a great base for exploring rural Burgundy, a charming ancient town that is easy to get in and out of.

Dijon is a good-sized city. It feels a bit sprawly. If you only have a few days to spend, you will see some interesting things, but you will not feel as though you have taken its measure. And it's not so easy to get in and out of town. Even the train station is a bit of a walk from the town center.

So it probably depends on what you are in Burgundy for. I think of the principal attractions of the region as agrarian and rural. But Dijon provides an interesting urban experience. Both have great food.

We spent a week based in Beaune and took day trips out in various directions, including a day in Dijon. It's about 20 minutes by frequent train. We enjoyed our Dijon time and could have spent more time to see more. And if we were serious foodies I'm sure we'd have found more choices there. But, as others have noted, Beaune was charming and walkable and easier to get in and out of for driving elsewhere in Burgundy. It's near the crossing of two autoroutes so you can get a long way in any direction quickly if you want.

If you come by train from Paris, or from CDG, Dijon would be a logical place to get off and get the car you'll need for most Burgundy sightseeing purposes. Or take a connecting train to Beaune.

With a car, neither. Best to stay in a small town or village, so you don't have to drive in/out of a large city and deal with its traffic.

My wife and I spent 6 nights in Burgundy last momth: 3 in Beaune and 3 in Dijon. We loved both places. Beaune is small and pretty and full of tourists. We also took a full day bike tour thru the vineyards which was awesome. I would recommend the bike trip to everyone. We spent one morning with a "greeter" which was also great. Don't miss the Hospice. There are excellent restaurants. We stayed at Le Cep an elegant old fashioned hotel very close to everything.
Dijon is only about a half hour drive from Beaune. Yes Dijon is a city but the area you will be spending time in is pretty small. We stayed at Grand Hotel Dijon la Cloche which was a bit of a splurge but our favorite hotel of our entire 18 day trip. It's located right at the start of the pedestrian street that leads to the old city. In the old city there are many half-timbered buildings. They have brass plates in the sidewalk that lead you on a nice walking tour. We were there on Bastille Day and were worried that things would be closed but it was very festive and there was a lot to do.
You can't go wrong with either!

I'm always very happy to see that Dijon has supporters! It deserves it! Thank you all :)

I had two bases in Burgundy. Semur en Axois and Beune. I much prefered the first as it was more picturesque and more medieval. Beune looks more 18th century, which is newer than I like. I also found that the south half of Beune, where the tourist attractions are is in much better repair than the north half. Walking the entire town, didn't help my impression of the town as a whole. My Airbnb in Semur was night and day better than my hotel in Beune - so that probably colored my impression too.