Combining a trip to Strasbourg...

Basel is cool, not too far south. Paris is neat, and only a couple of hours west.

Planning on Esslingen, Strasbourg, Colmar and Stuttgart this Dec. which I am really looking forward to, as well as farther north with Büdingen, Idstein, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Bad Homburg, Seligenstadt, and perhaps Kronberg and Eppstein. Frankfurt of course, multiple times, and Höchst. Some of them are only on one weekend, so I get to stretch out my visits.

Have been to three on the German side of the Rhine: Freiburg, Baden-Baden, and Heidelberg & liked them all. There's a regional train (Ortenau S-Bahn) that makes the short trip from Strasbourg over to Offenburg or Appenweier where you can connect with the north-south German trains that run along the edge of the Schwarzwald.

Mannheim isn't a place I recommend people go out of their way to visit, but they host a pretty good Christmas market. Not the best in Germany, but one of the better examples for a city of its size.

Stuttgart is an hour and a half by train and while otherwise not really a great city for tourists (unless you like cars, in which case it's a must-stop for the two great car museums) but it has a large and nice Christmas market. Even better in my view is the neighboring town of Esslingen, only another 10 minutes away from the main train station, that has both a traditional christmas market and a rennissance market at the same time, and is just a beautiful city, period.

If you like cars or trains, Mulhouse is around an hour from Strasbourg and has France's national motor and rail museums, both of which are very good.

I don't know what it's like in December, but I really liked Nancy, about an hour and a half from Strasbourg. If you like Art Nouveau or glassware, it's a must. And the Place Stanislas is absolutely gorgeous, both by day and by night.

Basel Switzerland!

Thanks for your feedback!

Colmar.

Hi, Obernai on the French side close to Strasbourg, on the German side Rastatt. Both can easily be reached by train.

What about staying in Baden Baden? There is a deal I'm looking at right now that seems reasonable, with a car rental option. Would that seem to be a good base for exploring some of the surrounding cities, including Strasbourg? I've been to Strasbourg before and know it'll be busy with the Christmas market, so I'm wondering if staying in a quieter place might be a good option... thoughts?