Solo Female wanting to travel in Burgundy for a week in mid-August 2021

For Chablis, you will want to stay in Auxerre, a very delightful town. You did not ask but Auxerre is pronounced O-SERR. Do not pronounce the X. For area visits, contact the Auxerre Office de Tourisme. They should have information about visiting Chablis, maybe William Fevre, one of the largest produces there.

Otherwise, I would stay in Dijon which is a bit bigger than Beaune, a fact you might appreciate if you stay longer than a couple of days. Contact the Dijon Office de Tourisme about wine tours. Wine production in Burgundy differs greatly from what one typically finds elsewhere, and nothing like what is done at California wineries. Growers and producers are often completely different entities, making visits problematic. The Offices de Tourisme can guide you to the best way to explore local wines and production techniques. They can also help you with bike rentals, which would be an excellent way to explore the area.

Auxerre and Beaune have train service, as does Dijon which has TGV service. To book trains or just to explore schedules, use www.oui.sncf (in the original French only) or use www.saveatrain.com for information in English.

I can't help with most of your questions but can get you started on the logistics of getting to Chablis. The town doesn't appear to have rail service, but it seems there are trains to Tonnerre and buses from Tonnerre on to Chablis. There's also bus service from Dijon to Auxerre, from which you could pick up a bus to Chablis.

You can begin your transportation research on the website Rome2Rio.com, which is usually accurate as to what type of transportation (train/bus) is available and where you might need to make connections. Do not trust the fares, travel times or frequencies it shows, because they are often wildly off base. Instead, keep clicking through the website until you find the name of the company offering bus service and go to its website (there will usually be a link) to find the real schedule.

For trains, use the SNCF website. A lot of us are currently having problems with the English-language SNCF website, so I've linked you to the French site.

I believe you'll find some bus service from Colmar to at least a few of the little Alsatian wine villages. The difficulty may be the schedules. Sometimes they don't line up with the needs of tourists who might want to spend only 90 minutes or so in one of the little places. It can be quite difficult to get to two tiny places in one day. I'm not a wine person myself, so I haven't tried this, but I wonder whether it would be possible to use a taxi between two of the little villages. The distances are sometimes quite short. The challenge would be finding a taxi if you didn't want to pre-arrange something in Colmar.

If you find yourself ready for a visit to an attractive, non-touristy town in Alsace, I can recommend Selestat. There's rail service from Colmar. It's not a cute little village, so it doesn't get many tourists. Colmar itself is drop-dead gorgeous. You can spend a lot of time just wandering the picturesque streets. The Unterlinden Museum is very good; its Isenheim Altarpiece is stunning.

I don't think you'll run out of things to do in Alsace. Depending on public transportation will slow you down a bit, but that's part of the experience.

If you are unable to get all the information you need before departure, I highly recommend making the tourist offices in Strasbourg and Colmar among the first stops once you arrive. Actually, that's always what I do. You will not be the first visitor without a car who wants to get to wine-related spots. They'll know about commercial tours or other options. You can also ask for their suggestions for nice places to go by train and bus.

Strasbourg is a beautiful city. The Wine Road has many interesting and atmospheric small villages. Perhaps you could find a tour from Colmar. We stayed in Riquewehr and enjoyed the experience.

For wine tasting in and around Chablis, I can’t recommend Brendan Moore and his wine tours (which I joined in Chablis) any higher. He will come pick you up and drive you around with whoever else has signed up that day.

Here is a link to his site.

https://www.wineliaisons.com/

He helped me “discover” Chablis when I was first living in France, and it’s a memory I treasure.

(P.s. I was also a solo traveler when I first went to Chablis. I ended up becoming such good friends with the hosts at my B&B — to whom Brendan introduced me — that they came to my wedding !!! Alas, they left Chablis long ago, so I don’t have a lodging recommendation for you.)

From Burgundy area, biking w/wine tasting: https://en.francevelotourisme.com/cycling-destinations/bourgogne-franche-comte-by-bike

Bike Rental: https://www.bourgogne-randonnees.fr/en

Get Your Guide has Wine Tours from Colmar.

Ophorus has wine tours from Colmar, Burgundy and elsewhere: https://www.ophorus.com

One of theses days I plan on cycling in the area and visit the wineries along the way. Enjoy your time.

The RS guide has a suggested biking route out of Beaune for wine tasting. If memory serves me, there are two options. You might look at the budget friendly, Hotel de France in Beaune. It is across the street from the train station. We had a modest, large, clean room. The staff was very helpful. The restaurant is excellent and also well priced.

We do picnic lunches which is fun for us, quicker than a sit down meal and saves a lot of money. When I was in Paris alone for a few days, I found the wine shops do carry splits (smaller bottles) of good quality wine.

There are several wineries right in the city of Beaune. We went to Bouchard pere et fils and Patriarch. Patriarch was the most interesting to us.

If you have the opportunity to travel the Route des Grands Crus between Beaune and Dijon, it's lovely. Maybe a bus goes that route?

I'm working on a trip for Bordeaux, Dordogne, and La Rioja. I actually just posted a question about how to communicate via email with hotels/wineries, etc. when you don't speak the language. I got a lot of great responses. I have changed how I email now and it seems to be working well. I write my email in English. Run it through a translator. Copy and paste the translation above the English text, then above the English, say En Anglais: Then I close with Cordialement, first name, lower case, last name, all caps. I'm not sure it helps, but if something in particular drew me to that particular place, I'll include it in the email. "I enjoy visiting family owned wineries", "I noticed you have 5 hectares of grapes and I like to visit smaller wineries", etc.

I don't think 3-4 days is too much for Alsace, especially if you are going to visit wineries and the small villages, it will take longer relying on public transportation. In Colmar, we stated at the Maison Martin Jund. Very quirky, SUPER clean and friendly, very inexpensive, breakfast included. It is a working winery and we tasted their wine.

If you make it to Eguisheim (absolutely loved it), you can taste in the town center at Piere-Henry Ginglinger. It is a working winery. They also operate a BnB.

The Alsace region is a gem - from delightful Colmar to the outlying villages. I have visited the area at least 4 times and am never disappointed. This year might be a little different in terms of bus schedules (the bus to the villages generally runs on school time). I wanted to go in July but the tourist office was not particularly helpful in terms of booking a wine tour. I travel solo and the company they recommended would only take 2 people minimum.
Be very cautious about tour booking sites. Hi booked through one but they couldn’t guarantee a seat until 2 days prior to the tour. Thankfully the Aix tourist office came to the rescue.
Life, European vacations etc are not the same just yet. Rick Steve’s today sent out a notice that all yours have been canceled through October and went on to say that if some tours are a go in November and December participants will need to be intrepid - not business as usual.
Enjoy the adventure no matter what. Just go with an open mind.

Hi,

I traveled alone between Dijon and Beaune by train in March, 2019 in the spring and loved it. I stayed two or three nights in each. In Beaune I stayed at La Villa Fleurie and it was great: super helpful staff (Jonathan), a small garden, and large, very clean rooms. It was a 15 minute walk from the train station, and outside of the wall (about $68). About a six minute walk out the front door from the station was a bike shop where I rented a bike for a couple days: it came with bike trails of the vineyards (I also used the very accurate directions in RS's tour guide). I traveled by bike through the vineyards alone and stopped at numerous "Caves" for wine tastings and had no problems being solo. In downtown Beaune, try the Bistro du Coin and the Patriache Winery for tours and tastings. My inability to speak French wasn't really an issue at all: I was able to get two cases sent home.

In Dijon I stayed at the Hotel du Stade and it was about $60 per night. It was a two star hotel and very clean and the owner, a woman, spoke English fluently. She was able to make several suggestions to me for dinner and wine bars, including Cafe Jacquermart and Dr. Wine on Rue Musette.

Good luck

Thank you everyone for the wonderful tips!! My trip in France is sadly ending in a few days. Your tips were so helpful!! And I didn't get to see all that I wanted to see so hopefully I will be back in both Alsace and Burgundy. However, Alsace was definitely my favorite! Merci Beaucoup!!

Please report!

Yes PLEASE write and post a trip report. Would love to know how you did not renting a car, where you went, where you stayed and were you able to stay on budget.

Thank you in advance for sharing.