Heidelberg?

By car or by train? With a car, there's enough to see and do in the area for weeks. By public transportation, you're a little more limited, but you can probably find enough in Heidelberg and the vicinity (the Neckar river valley, the Bergstrasse, the Odenwald, Speyer) to full 2-3 days.

We usually use the train or public transport, but open to renting a car. Thanks for the feedback!

I would rent a car and see Heidelberg with its castle and beautiful old town. Then off to Speyer for the Technik Museum or down to Ludwigsburg to the palace and gardens. From there you can go back to Strasbourg again.

When in the Fall and for how many days outside of Colmar/Strasbourg? A car gives you many options in the South West of Germany- Baden Württemberg, Bayern und Hessen. Anyhow Heidelberg would be great for a day or two. Visit the old town and castle. Good nightlife as it is a University Town with many varied Restaurants, Cafes, Clubs and Bars. I think it still has the longest Main Street Hauptstrasse in Germany, but many side streets too. Both Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway visited here. The Palace in Schwetzingen with its gardens is nearby too. Other odds and ends small sites with time like the Philosophers walk, monastery ruin, Keltin site and Nazi stadium across the Necker River. As mentioned the Technik Museum in Sinsheim and there is the small town of Bad Wimpfen on the Necker River. You could do a round trip drive along the Necker seeing monasteries and castle ruin to Bad Wimpfen, then Autobahn 6 to Sinsheim, then A6 to A5 back to Heidelberg. Could be done in a day. Take a google map tour of the Necker from Heidelberg to Bad Wimpfen.

http://www.schwetzingen.de/pb/site/Schwetzingen/node/666562/Len/index.html
http://en.badwimpfen.de/
http://www.technik-museum.de/en/
Three Castle ruin in Neckarsteinach on the Necker: http://www.burgenstrasse.de/showpage.php?SiteID=20&sel=u&sid=38&lang=1

I think Heidelberg would be a fine place to go after either Colmar or Strasbourg. It's only a little over 2 hrs by train from Strasbourg so you could leave Strasbourg after breakfast and be in Heidelberg by lunch time. The two places mentioned by the other poster (Speyer and Ludwigsburg) are easily reachable from Heidelberg by train, as is Stutgart - all around an hour or less, so there's really no need to rent a car unless you want to explore the countryside around there. Tubingen is another medieval town that can be visited by train, it's a little farther (about 2hrs by train from Heidelberg) that has a nice old town that was not destroyed in WWII. Heidelberg itself is nice with the old town, riverside, and the castle to explore - lots of places to eat too. It's a college town so there's a nice youthful vibe if you like that.

Hi. I was looking at a similar trip for this past December which did not transpire (sigh). Because I was interested in the spa at Baden-Baden, I was thinking something like:

Baden-Baden > Strasbourg / Colmar /Equisheim > Gengenbach or starting down the German side and ending up in Strasbourg.

Now, I was primarily interested in Christmas markets, but a big draw was and is the KONUS card if staying in Black Forest towns. There seemed to be so many interesting day trips, I kept adding days on.

http://www.dreisamtal.de/en/service/konus.php?lang=en

I do plan to visit this area, I just missed the Dec 2015 opportunity.

If spas interest you, realize that Baden-Baden is only one of several dozen towns in Germany that are officially designated as spa resorts (a fact that gets lost when the proprietor of this website focuses so closely on it). And many of us who have sampled the various spa towns in Germany find Baden-Baden a little to stuffy and filled with bling. If you're looking for a spa treatment in the Black Forest, I would go to Bad Paradies Schwarzwald in Tittisee-Neustadt. Now, I'll give the caveat that I haven't visited this particular resort. But I was a very frequent visitor to it's sister resort, Therme Erding near Munich. If Bad Paradies Schwarzwald is half as good as Therme Erding, it would still be several times better than the spas in Baden-Baden.

Bad Dürkheim, on the German Wine Route, is another good choice for a spa town if you're in SW Germany.

Hi Susan,

i´am pretty sure you will find enough things to do here. Heidelberg alone has a nice old town ( Altstadt).

As mentioned before, you can visit the castle in Schwetzingen.

In Speyer you can see the roman cathedral or the Judenbad (Oldest Mikvah north of the Alps). There is also the Historical Museum of the Palatinate with interesting exhibitions, and of course the Technik Museum. Not far in Neustadt an der Weinstraße you could visit the hambacher castle too.

http://speyer.technik-museum.de/
http://www.speyer.de/sv_speyer/en/Tourism/Tourist%20attractions/Jewish%20Heritage/Ritual%20Bath%20%28Mikveh%29/
http://www.speyer.de/sv_speyer/en/Tourism/Museums%20and%20Learning%20Places/Historical%20Museum%20of%20the%20Palatinate/
http://www.hambacher-schloss.de/component/content/article/37/356-welcome

A 4,10€ ticket (per person one way) will get you from Strasbourg to Kehl, Germany. From there you can go anywhere in Baden-Württemberg and back in a day with a Baden-Württemberg-Ticket, 28€ for two.

If you want a spa, from Karlsruhe, take an IRE to Pforzheim, then an S-Bahn to Bad Wildbad. Don't get off at the Bahnhof; stay on the train to the end of the line opposite the Palais Therme.

The Palais Therme is beautiful. It was built over a century ago by a duke or something in a Moorish style and has been modernized since to include an open-air "infinity pool" on the roof.

The "Technik Museum" in Sinsheim and Speyer appeals to families with kids or to nerds (cars, aircraft). The Landesmuseum für Technik in Mannheim has a more educational approach, with focus on the history of manufacturing industry in the region rather than on the boy toys. Visit a world-class art exhibition.

Why not visit the real stuff, i.e. factory museums and tours at BASF in Ludwigshafen (world's largest integrated chemical complex, 10km², >30,000 employees), at Porsche or Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart, or its little sister in Ladenburg which is a nice, late medieval town?