Request Help with Itinerary - Strasbourg to Lucerne

Posted by Brenda (Philadelphia, PA, USA) on 02/18/24 05:43 AM

Hi Everyone
I've been asked to speak at a meeting in Basel the second week of April (yay to me!) and so I'm planning a vacation around it and taking my brother-in-law (birthday gift when he turned 65). I could use help with the itinerary. I'm worried it's just too much moving around. Maybe fly round trip to Zurich, spend 2 days in Lucerne then just do day trips to Colmar/Strasbourg from Basel? We'd still be moving but not packing/unpacking every few days. I always worry about missing trains though.

Itinerary 1

Fly into Paris, 2 hour high speed train to Strasbourg, arrive that afternoon, stay 2 nights. (worth 3 nights since Day 1= jet lag?)
Colmar - 2 nights (see Colmar, Koenigsburg Castle, pick one of the other small wine towns- which one?)
Basel -3 nights (attend conference)
Lucerne 2 nights
Fly home from Zurich

Itinerary 2
Fly round trip to Zurich
Start in Lucerne - 2 nights
Basel 5 nights - day trip to Colmar, Strasbourg
Fly home (shorter trip)

The second itinerary is shorter because I only have 1 day in Strasbourg.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Posted by Hank

City of Seattle

02/18/24 06:19 AM

1770 posts

How fantastic for you! I heart Alsace.

Don't split Strasbourg and Colmar. They're too close together to break up a stay. Rather home base in one, and you can quickly and easily visit the other as often as you'd like.

Although I have stayed in Strasbourg three times in the past, and also stayed there most recently, I prefer staying Colmar. Some people are put off by its touristy perfection, but if you could be happy staying in a place like Bruges, Colmar is so charming as to be almost painful.

You could also easily commute into Basel from Colmar. 45 minutes on the quicker train direct. Strasbourg about 1h20.

Basel is a decent city to be sure. Less of a slobberknocker than Strasbourg or Colmar but good. It's also extremely expensive. Last time we went through I joked to my wife that it's a really diverse place - every single type of ultra rich person lives there. It's not exactly a fun town. A fuzzy sort of assessment but I think a reasonable assessment. Strasbourg is a fun town. Frieburg is a fun town. Colmar can be an ecstatic astral trip to another time walking around in the evening with a little bit of wine sloshing in your belly.

Standard disclaimer: it's all good! Just offering opinion on which slicess of pizza are a little bit bigger :)

Posted by Brenda OP

Philadelphia, PA, USA

02/18/24 02:47 PM

108 posts

@Hank, thanks so much for your response- it's very helpful b/c I LOVE LOVE LOVE BRUGES!! Based on your reply, I will love staying in Colmar, and will favor option 1, flying into Paris vs roundtrip from Zurich.

Since you've been in Alsace before, would you spend 3 days in Strasbourg vs two? I have been thinking of reducing Basel to 2 days (the conference only) so would have an extra day floating around.

Also - do you think we could do the Koenigsburg castle in the morning and one of the other little towns (Riq. or Ehr.) in the afternoon?

as it will be April (and maybe rainy, muddy, I don't foresee us hiking.)

thanks!

Posted by Hank

City of Seattle

02/18/24 05:59 PM

1770 posts

I would add a night to Colmar over Strasbourg. You can get to basically all the same stuff from either, Colmar more convenient too. The places you mentioned wanting to see (The villages around the Alsatian Grand Cru vineyard area).

I think you could get away with just the two nights in Basel just fine.

It's easy to visit a whole bunch of towns and sites in one day in Alsace. Renting a car for just that day is very helpful.

Regarding hiking/walks, don't rule it out. It might be wet, or maybe not. The tourist offices in all major towns have brochures with set walking trails in the vines and hills surrounding. Range usually from 45 minutes to several hours. If it's an okay day, it's nice to spend a little bit of time strolling in the country!

Alsace is wine country, so if you like wine that's great; Even if not you have all the benefits of wine country - pretty to look at, good food, good living, local attitude, etc :)

Have fun