Strasbourg Area?

With a car I would choose any of the wine villages that have accommodations in your budget and restaurants for dinner that you could walk to.

Do some research of the many towns/villages to see what appeals to you. Eguisheim, Riquewihr, Ribeauville and Kaysersberg are popular. But Turckheim, Obernai and Bergheim are also very nice. Many of the villages and towns may be packed during the day, but early morning and the evenings will be quieter.

When are you traveling? With 12 days you might consider 2 locations, 1 near Strasbourg and another near Colmar.

Well you could stay in Strasbourg, but it's expensive and parking is going to cost you @ 50 euro a day. Colmar's not much better, and it's a small, tourist ridden, place worth a day or two at most. I'd stay in Hagenau or Freiberg, both of which are fairly close and have good public transport to Strasbourg & Colmar. Basing from either of these offers a lot of options on exploring the Alsace and the Black Forest, and good options for Switzerland also.

Personally i wouldn't spend that much time around Strasbourg (although I've done more than that over the past three years). I'd cut that time in half and spend the rest by Lake Constance, which is much more attractive.

We will be going May 1 to May 12. Right now I have an Airbnb about 15 minutes out of Strasbourg that has free parking. But now I’m second-guessing myself thinking it might be better to stay in a little village and then do day trips from there.

Strasbourg has a lot going for it. The Central Island is a World Heritage Site. It is famous for it's Gothic Architecture: A spectacular Cathedral and Canals and Covered Bridges. You are close enough for day trips to Germany: Black Forest National Park, Baden-Baden. Colmar France is fairly close; as is Nancy France. Strasbourg is probably more spendy; but you might be able to work on a week plus accommodation rate. The time of year might dictate some of your costs. Look at the edges of the greater metropolitan areas for more affordable accommodations and parking. If you are coming or going to Paris: I think there is a speed train. Bon Voyage! P.S. Lake Constance, or the Bordensee is a great place to visit with boating on the "inland sea" between countries.

We loved Strasbourg!
Rick Steve’s may like Colmar but we did not care for it at all! We were sorry we wasted our time there.

With a car, take a look at Riquewihr. We stayed there a few years ago and liked it much more than Colmar. It is a walled village and when you go through the wall it's like an express trip to the 17th century. There are no cars but if you have a reservation at a hotel with parking, you are good to go. Strasbourg is an easy drive and Rick's guide had good instructions on parking outside of the city and taking a tram into the heart of town. All the rest of the local wine villages are easy drives. Have a good trip.

Eguisheim is the most central village in the Alsace region just outside Colmar. There are a variety of hotels and apartments. Staying in Strasbourg and doing day trips into the area will be a lot of extra driving everyday, I would not recommend staying there because of so much extra driving. Staying in Colmar is okay as well as long as you can find free parking with your lodging. Colmar has a lot of lodging choices and a lot more restaurant choices than the smaller villages in the area.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that you stay in Gengenbach in the Black Forest in Germany. It's so beautiful and there is a lot to see and do there. And Strasbourg is only 30 minutes away by car. The biggest benefit is that it is relatively undiscovered by American tourists so you could stay here and enjoy the calm and peaceful loveliness of the area but still make your way across the border to France and the Alsace area.

I stayed in Gengenbach for 4 nights in 2022 and absolutely loved it. The town is very charming with beautiful half-timbered houses (it's frequently called a "chocolate box" village) and has a beautiful old town, with quite a few restaurants and cafes to choose from. Gengenbach makes a good base as it is right on the main train line, and gives you the options of some interesting day trips. There are many other charming villages in the region that you can visit and there is also the Vogtsbauernhof (open-air museum) that is wonderful.

The town church (Saint Marion) is really lovely and the medieval gates to the city are really interesting. The Benedictine Abbey is also worth a visit, and behind it are some cloistered gardens that were a joy to wander through. This was one of my favorite places. It was peaceful and inviting and I could have stayed for hours. There were little signs of inspiration scattered around, and some children from a nearby preschool playing.

Also don't miss a walk through Engelgasse and Höllengasse streets (near the TIC). Here you will find cobblestones and half-timbered houses, flower pots and cats resting on doormats and quaint dolls in the window. I felt like I had walked back in time when I strolled through these quaint and narrow streets. There is also a nice hike you can take that will get you above the town with some absolutely beautiful views of below. The hike ends up at a church called St. Jakob auf dem Bergle that sits above town. The TIC in town will have maps showing you how to get there. it was a really nice hike and as I said, the views are just lovely!

A small travel company I trust is offering a tour to the area next year and staying in Riquewihr. Their website might give you information on why they've chosen it: TravelFeverTours.com

Not quite sure what you mean by Strasbourg area … is that just Alsace? What is the draw for you? History, colorful villages, food, wine, churches, other?

We spent six nights in Alsace in September. I don’t know that I’d choose more than about eight nights in the Strasbourg to Colmar - Route de Vins area of Alsace, personally. We did it by e-bike with two nights in Strasbourg, single nights in Obernai and Ribeauville and two nights in Colmar. We could have enjoyed one more day in Strasbourg and Colmar each to see more in those two small to medium size cities. The many lovely towns of colorful half timbered buildings, small churches and family wineries throughout the area are charming but they do not required days on end to enjoy. Three days to visit or stay in about nine different villages (plus two castles) was ample.

The 1000 year old Notre Dame de Strasbourg is magnificent and its history and its ‘chantier’ - its having been a work in progress for a millennium - is compelling.

We missed the Musee Unterlinden and Musee Bartholdi in Colmar. The former because we had seen plenty of altarpieces already in Strasbourg and in other churches in Kaysersberg, Burgheim and elsewhere and the latter because the museum itself was closed the day we went there to hear a concert in its courtyard as part of Les Journees du Patrimoine - Heritage Days.

Mardee suggests Gengenbach and the Black Forest. We spent a couple of nights in Freiburg plus another night in the Black Forest near Schiltach in advance of our visit to Alsace and we then spent five nights in Burgundy after Alsace. Also nearby is Lorraine and then the Champagne region and the WW1 battlefields such as Verdun.

Any one of those four areas could be a nice complement to Alsace … whether wine, history or food is near the heart of your journey. (Our journey did not include Lorraine, WW1 battlegrounds or Champagne; you can never do it all.)

Whether you need a car for your 12 days is questionable, but a car can help for limited parts. We had a car for just five of our 30 days in SW Germany, Eastern France and Paris. We took the train from Freiburg to Strasbourg at the front end of our Alsace segment and then travelled by train from Colmar to Dijon at the back end. Otherwise all travel in Alsace was by e-bike , including the climb to Haut Koenigsburg in the way from Obernai to Ribeauville.
(Late Note - Our Alsace/Burgundy TR is here)

In your case, perhaps you might choose a few nights in Strasbourg and Colmar plus another two nights in-between and just use a car starting with a departure from Strasbourg and ending upon arrival in Colmar.

Bon Voyage.

We split our nights in that area between Eguisheim and Colmar and took day trips from them. Both the hotels we chose had free parking.

We didn’t stay in Strasbourg because our rental car was from Germany and it didn’t have a France low emissions sticker, so we couldn’t drive there. Our hotel in Colmar was by the train station so we visited Strasbourg as a day trip from it.

you could stay in Strasbourg, but it's expensive and parking is going to cost you @ 50 euro a day

That cost for parking is about 3X what we had to pay. And honestly, I didn't find Strasbourg to be particularly expensive. It's a wonderful city for walking around and soaking in the various neighborhoods. Very beautiful city.

Thanks so much, everyone, for all the thoughtful insights — they’ve been really helpful.

We are renting a car and driving from Prague, with one overnight stop on the way, but not sure where? The main reason for going to this area is to slow down a bit, really live there for a few days, and use our French before continuing on a circular route back to Prague. Car rental in Prague is surprisingly inexpensive — even with the border fee it’s only about $160 for two weeks — so it feels like a sensible option compared to trains, even if we don’t use the car every day.

Based on your suggestions, I’m now thinking it might be ideal to stay in one or two smaller towns rather than just one base, and then possibly include Lake Constance on the return drive to Prague. It sounds like a great way to break up the journey and see a bit more along the way.

Thanks again — really appreciate everyone taking the time to share their experience.

I have never rented a car in Prague so interesting that it is so inexpensive. Jotting that away for a future trip.