My wife and I will be traveling to France to enjoy the Christmas Markets. We plan on spending five nights in the Strasbourg area. We do all our traveling by train. Would it be better to use Strasbourg as a base or Colmar? Also would appreciate any advise on what to see and do it this area.
Trips into Germany? Is the city of Nancy worth a visit?
Thanks for your help as always
Gary and Kelly
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
I recommend to you Rick's comparison of the two locations, on p. 704 of France 2008: Rick recommends Colmar as the better home base of the two. Others might differ.
Posted by
Ojai, CA
591 posts
I'd also opt for Colmar over Strasbourg. It's a very pretty town and you can walk to most places of interest. You should definitely check out a few of the Christmas Markets on the German side of the Rhine. You can take a bus over to Freiburg (no direct train route) which has an excellent market and some great stores for shopping. From Freiburg you can take a train up to Baden Baden which also has a good Christmas market.
Posted by
Paradise
7068 posts
It's probably a good bit easier on your pocketbook to stay in Germany and daytrip to Strasbourg, Colmar. Gengenbach is an old walled town with half-timbered buildings and cobblestones east of Offenburg, very close to Strasbourg - it's a bit like Colmar but smaller and without the heavy tourism. Apartments start at around 30 Euros/night, and train travel in the German portion of your itinerary would be FREE; hosts in Gengenbach give you a travel card for the duration of your stay:
Posted by
Atlanta
3262 posts
Last December 26 we flew to Stuttgart from Atlanta (less expensive airfare) and took the train to Colmar. We stayed at Hotel Rapp (www.rapp-hotel.com)a fairly short walk from the train station. We stayed in Colmar 3 nights and enjoyed the great food and the Christmas markets. We then took the train to Baden Baden for 3 nights. We stayed at Hotel am Markt (www.hotel-am-markt-baden.de) and went to the Friedrichsbad Spa. We planned to go to Strasbourg during our visit but just stayed in Colmar. It was beautiful in December!
Posted by
London, UK
286 posts
I haven't been to Colmar but I really enjoyed staying in Strasbourg. It is one of those border cities where French is going into one ear and German into the other. Very pretty too.
Posted by
Raleigh, NC
100 posts
Highly recommend the Musee d'Unterlinden in Colmar.
To get East or West from Colmar via rail you'd have to go North to Strasbourg or South to Mulhouse, I think there arent any real East/West passenger trains directly from Colmar. If I recall it's about 30 minutes by rail from Colmar to either of those two cities anyways, so no big deal.
Hard to say that Colmar itself is worth more than 2 nites unless you are there for the Music Festival in July- then you'd have a reason to stay longer in my opinion.
Definitely see the Musee d'Unterlinden, tho.
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
Many, many years ago, I spent and adventurous weekend in Strasbourg visiting a student friend of a friend. I loved the history part of the city that I saw and even the food that we ate--which was primarily student fare. It was a very dynamic place back then packed with students. Lots of Algerians on the look out for sweet young blonds who smiled too much. ; ) I have not been to Kolmar, but I suspect it's quite different in atmosphere. Strasbourg no doubt has changed, but I believe it is is still a university town and as someone else pointed out a border town even these days of the European Union. It sounds like a great trip.