Loire vs Alsace

I would not want to tour vintage homes in the heat of summer. Strasbourg and one of the wine villages, not Colmar, would be my choice.

As much as I love Alsace (lived near Colmar for several years), I’m going to recommend the Loire Valley. As you know, several iconic chateaux are there, and I think everyone should see them in their lifetime. Tours would make a fine, central home base. There also are vineyards/tasting rooms you can visit. (Saumur is my fav Loire Valley varietal.) I would recommend taking a train from Paris (that is your point of origin?) to Tours and then rent a car out of Tours to go to your points of interest. Or, I’m sure you can find tours out of Tours to various chateaux. I just prefer car rental to allow me my own agenda.

If you do want to do Alsace, again I would recommend taking the train from Paris to Colmar, rent a car at the station, and drive to the village of Riquewihr to make that my home base. Very charming Alsatian village that is directly on the Alsatian Wine Route. Spend a few days exploring villages, vineyards, tasting rooms along the Route. Perhaps take a hike through the vineyards. Visit the medieval castle Haut Koenigsbourg. Go into Colmar for a half day or so, and/or head up to Strasbourg, being sure to see the cathedral and the area of Petit Venise. I have other suggestions for the area if you are interested. Just ask.

There is no right or wrong answer to your question. You need to do your own research and see which area interests you more. Be sure to research the excellent French tourist office websites. You can google the tourist office websites for any region, département, city, town or village you may want to visit. France is divided into several regions and each of these regions is divided into departments. You will find loads of info on these websites including hotel/accommodation and restaurant info as well as what to see and do in the area. Occasionally the websites have English versions. In doing a google search enter the words "office de tourisme" followed by the name of your region, département, city, town or village and this will bring that place to the top of your search. If you don't know in which region or département a city/town/village might be located then just go to wikipedia and enter the name of that city/town/village and it will mention in which region and département that city/town/village is located.

You have not mentioned whether or not you plan on renting a car or will rely on public transportation for your explorations (I'd recommend the former). In regards to your posted itinerary for the Loire my opinion is that is way too many châteaux to visit. After you've seen a few châteaux you'll start to think they all look the same (like seeing too many gothic cathedrals). See the current thread below for info about visiting the Loire:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/paring-down-the-amboise-area

As others have said, they are really two very different kinds of experiences. Only you can decide which one you'll enjoy more, but do consider hot weather and crowds.

To visit all six of the chateaux you've listed within 3 days, you'll be pretty rushed. For me, paring it down to four (or five max) would be more doable. You will have a rental car, yes? Because public transportation doesn't cut it for visiting the chateaux. If you don't want to drive, then sign up for day tours that include the chateaux you like best. Using Tours as your base means you'll be centrally located, which is a plus for taking day tours, but be aware that driving in Tours can be stressful with a maze of highways and heavy traffic.

We stayed in Azay-le-Rideau at the Hotel Biencourt and absolutely loved it. On one day we drove to the Fortress of Chinon, which was a wonderful contrast from the more luxurious chateaux that the Loire is famous for. It has lots of informative signboards (ties to the Knights Templar, Joan of Arc, and Eleanor of Aquitaine), indoor exhibits, and motion-activated sound effects. We didn't have time to do the walking tour of the old town (described in the RS guidebook at that time; not sure if RS still has this), but it looked lovely from the heights of the fortress.

If you have a rental car, I would absolutely choose for this excursion the Loire valley to spend the three full days in this summer trip.

Without the rental car, then I would probably pick Strasbourg and Colmar, easily done with public transport and the train.

Doing the Loire valley without the car can be done but much more flexibility with the car at your disposal.

Thank you all for your input! I will not have a rental car and will be relying on public transportation, so it sounds like the Alsace region will be the best option. I appreciate any recommendations… I will be there two full days and then half days traveling to and from Paris.

I wouldn't base your decision on public transportation options as both areas have "reasonable" public transport access to get to at least some of the major sites in each region. Decide which region interests you based on which region you prefer and then folks can tell you about how to use public transport in either region to get around.

If you are reasonably fit, you can bicycle to multiple chateaus in the area and can even take your bike on the train to move to the next spot. My daughter and I are doing this plan because I really didn't want to deal with a car and she is dying to bike. We are basing ourselves in Tours because it is the transportation center of the area with multiple trains to multiple locations. We are currently planning to skip Chambord as it appears that it will be covered in scaffolding and that doesn't particularly appeal. Distances by train are short and so are many (but not all) of the bike distances. You could hit most of those via bike and train, but you might like to pare your list down a bit, independent of travel method just to make it a more relaxing pace.

My husband and I did this many decades ago (before it was so well marked!) and we had a blast. Our favorites to visit were Chambord (the biggest and with interesting highlights), Chenonceau (our very favorite), and Villandry (just for gardens). We also saw Azay and Chaumont, but neither was super compelling. Enjoy!