I need some advice as to where to stay on the Route du Vin. We will be spending three days in the Beaune area and then we'll proceed up to the Colmar area where we'll spend another 3 nights. I can't decide if we should stay in Colmar (where we'll drop our rental car to catch a train to Paris) or in the country side around Colmar. I understand that Colmar is beautiful and perhaps it makes sense to spend the final night there and the first two nights in a village in the surrounding area. We'll be driving to explore the villages and the wineries and it seems like it would be less of a hassle to stay outside of the Colmar rather than having to fight traffic and parking. If we were to stay in a village on the Route du Vin which one would you recommend?
Kayserberg, Riquewihr,Equisheim Turckheim, Ribeuville or ? Thank you!
Posted by
Green Bay
20016 posts
Kaysersberg is unbelievably cute and has some nice small hotels. It would make good base for the area. I'd say maybe stay last night in Colmar itself. The Best Western across the street from the station is pleasant and has a Michelin one star restaurant if you want to put on the Ritz. Colmar isn't so big that there are any real traffic problems to worry about.
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7260 posts
My wife and I hate "changing hotels", so when we tour "cities", we always try to stay for three days at a time. (Note that Classical Rick Steves touring - not necessarily what posters here actually do ... calls for a new hotel every night, in order the make the most of every moement.) Anyway, if you are really going to taste wine, do you want to drive 45 minutes while impaired at the end of the day? We stayed in Ribauville, at a large "Relais du Silence" (group of quiet B&B's and larger places, guidebooks and web site .. ) called I THINK Hostellerie des Seigneurs De Ribeaupierre. Riquewehr is also very pretty. I think you should make a list of wineries first, and then pick towns to stay in. We only went to one or two wineries, so it didn't control our trip. We targeted more the Michelin www.auberge-de-l-ill.com/? , Strasbourg, and Colmar. I wish I'd incorporated Le Corbusier's convent in Ronchamp. We went on to Avignon and trained back to Paris to fly home. Today, I'd want to see Louvre Lens before heading South. I'm not urging you to change your plans, but we also visited a cousin in Geneva, another Michelin 3*, Restaurant Pic (female chef!), and we loved Besancon, the trail of Gustave Courbet (near Ornans), and Perouges.
Posted by
Granite Bay, CA
1914 posts
We like really small villages and decided to stay in Itterswiller. It was a good location for seeing the whole area.
Posted by
Paris
9548 posts
Kientzheim! I've written about it in another posting here on the helpline, and also on TripAdvisor.
Posted by
Stafford, Virginia, USA
143 posts
If you're going to spend most of your time touring the villages, then I'd stay in one of them, at least for the first two nights. My recommendation would be Kaysersberg. We stayed in Kientzheim a few years ago, and while it's nice, it's very small and has limited sleeping and (especially) eating facilities.