Stay in Beaune, Dijon, or both?

I have been to Beaune a couple of times but always visiting friends who live there. I've been given tours of the Hospice and other places of interest each time. My impression is that there are only a couple of hours of sights that would interest your son. People on this Forum like to go there to visit wineries, bicycle or hike through the vineyards or just relax.

The Notre-Dame church has some wonderful tapestries depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary.

We once were in Beaune on market day, and spent several hours perusing the stalls.

I opted to stay in Dijon and daytrip to Beaune because most of the sights of interest to me were in Dijon. However, I didn't have a car and wasn't planning day trips in the area. If you're pretty confident you can see what you want to see in Dijon on a single day trip, I don't see why you shouldn't stay in Beaune and make your other day trips from there. I, myself, wouldn't want to have to daytrip twice from my small-city base to a larger city.

Google Maps says your lodging is about 0.8 miles from the Beaune train station, which isn't all that far if there are no mobility issues. There may well be taxis hanging out at the train station, or perhaps even a bus. Google Maps indicates Bus 3 would get you part of the way there, but it appears not to run very frequently.

@acraven Google Maps said it was a 36 minute walk but if it is less than a mile that seems incorrect, to say the last. We are used to walking a lot on vacation. The main thing is that even though I will have a car, I don't always want to use the car. I want to be able to go to dinner and have a few glasses of wine and get back to the hotel without driving or too much difficulty. Anyway, I am pushing hard to finish planning this trip, but the Burgundy part is a little challenging ... and I may be skipping it to some degree. You can look at my latest post if you are up for it. Thank you.

My google maps says it is an 18 minute walk.

My much better half and I spent four nights in Dijon back in October. We loved it, and found plenty to do for three full days. You could spend the better part of a day in the art museum at the palace - just an amazing collection. The food market downtown is a delight. Great restaurants. You won't find as many English speaking tourists, but that was part of the charm. We'd planned on doing a couple of day trips from there, to Beaune and Besancon. Weather interfered, but we never regretted spending all three days in Dijon.

A few quick things.

I would stay in one or the other - they are too close together to bother with moving.

Beaune is either a small city or a very big village. It's not a small village like for example Mersault.

I think Dijon might be better for you. I like Beaune. It's a great base to ride bikes, taste wine, eat in restaurants, I see a couple of interesting sites, stroll around a pretty town. But I think my kid would prefer Dijon, more diversity of things to do.

I also feel like, and this might just be me, that the prestigious wine valley in Burgundy is most interesting to wine people. But if you're not a wine person, you'd probably be as or more happy in Auxerre or similar visiting the better looking fairy tale villages of Burgundy that are in fact by and large not located in the wine valley.

Janettravels44 (I'm screwing up the handle, but close) is a great resource on the beautiful parts of Burgundy outside the wine valley. Maybe she can help.

Hi Hank and others: thank you for your thoughtful advice, which I am saving for another trip. I ended up deciding to drive to Dijon, making a few stops along the way, but leaving the car there and go directly to Lyon, so Burgundy will have to be for another trip. I just think it is overall best for us to have more balance between city and countryside on this trip.

:) have a great trip