Alsace Region - Via Paris or Frankfurt

Check the fees for returning the car in France, could be significant.

The train and Lufthansa bus are available for Frankfurt to Strasbourg. The train is about 60€ & 2 hours. The Lufthansa bus is 49€ and 2.5 hours. You may be better off renting the car when you leave Strasbourg.

Answers on the France forum.

Whatever airport we fly into (Paris or Frankfurt) is the airport we would fly out from for our travel back home.

As you will be coming from a European airport, also check the other (smaller) airports in the vicinity. Not sure which ones offer connections to Oslo, but Basel and Strasbourg come to mind which are close to / in the Alsace region.

Whatever airport we fly into (Paris or Frankfurt) is the airport we would fly out from for our travel back home.

That at least gets rid of the large fee for dropping off in another country if you pick up a car in Frankfurt.

Neither Basel nor Strasbourg airports have flights from Oslo. Zürich does (both Swiss and Scandinavian airlines), so Zürich and a train to Colmar or Strasbourg is a third option.
Driving a rented car across borders in Western Europe is no issue, but returning it in a different country is expensive.

As the others say, there are train and bus options from Frankfurt airport to Strasbourg.

Whichever option you choose (Paris, Frankfurt or Zürich) you could spend a first night and day in Strasbourg and then pick up your car.

Just returned from three weeks in France/Germany. In our planning, we researched driving vs. train. We elected to fly into Paris and take the TGV train to Strasbourg. Primary reason is 1) Railway is easy to navigate, 2) between Paris and Strasbourg one will see a lot of wheat fields 3) carried backpacks (as recommended by Rick Steves) and avoided additional costs of a car and 4) driving to Alsace takes four to five hours. The TGV took 1 1/2 hours. We did not want to waste time on the road, looking at wheat fields, when we could be eating, drinking and exploring the hearts of France villages!

We found the "Pearls of Alsace from Strasbourg" day tour well worth our time. Full day, with a guided tour, to Colmar and beautiful villages between. Favorite is Equisheim - a must. (www.ophorus.com excursions and tours).

Renting a car is very expensive. It was more cost effective to get our tickets when we landed at CDG. A great tip is to go to the train station tourist information office in the CDG airport. They helped us find and buy the best rail ticket from Paris to Strasbourg. The cost is a fraction of a rental car.

you can take the train from Frankfurt - either from the airport with tfr somewhere or take the frequent commuter train to the main train station and direct tran to Strasbourg. There's also a shuttle bus by Lufthansa.

If you are returning to Franfurt for your flight home, then a rental car is a good option too.

Brussels Airlines flies Oslo - Brussels - Strasbourg in less time and for less money than it will cost you to to travel via Paris or Frankfurt by air + ground transport. Later, take the train to FRA or CDG or wherever you fly out.

Really good advice from Chani and Russ. We took the TGV to Strasbourg, and enjoyed the car stops going south from Strasbourg, after a few nights there. There's a lot to see before you get to Rick's more southerly favorites. We happened to return the car in Avignon, and after a few nights there, took the TGV back to Paris and eventually home. I'd comment that we missed some very scenic options from [Besançon to Avignon], as well as food and history in Lyon - although we did eat at Restaurant Pic on the way. You could easily spend a week just on the [ ] bracketed drive, if you had the time. Our high point: Pérouges.

Although it's not the same sort of tourism as Alsace, there are staggering number of superb places to visit between Frankfurt and Strasbourg, really more than there are from Strasbourg to Besançon.

Paris to Strasbourg here too. We rented from Sixt right at the train station in Strasbourg and left our bags in the car while we spent the afternoon walking around. We left from there and headed to Riqwuehir where we stayed for several days. LOVE LOVE LOVE Alsace! I'd stay in Kaisersberg next time, but the towns are all picture perfect. Touristy highlights also included the Konegsburg castle, and the monkey mountain!! Have fun!

Why not fly in, stay the night, and take the train the next morning, or schedule the train to allow 4-5 hours? On-time arrival, especially within the continent, is probably pretty decent.