Alsace: Strasbourg, Colmar and the Storybook Wine Villages
Destinations 4 min read
The France of the storybooks, an easy 1h50 from Paris. How to do Strasbourg, Colmar and the wine villages honestly, without the coach-tour crowds.
Alsace is the France of the storybooks: half-timbered houses in sherbet colours, geraniums spilling from every window, vineyards climbing the hills behind, and a German accent to the food that surprises first-timers. Strasbourg and Colmar are the two anchors, and the good news is they are astonishingly easy to reach from Paris. Here is how to do Alsace honestly, without the coach-tour crowds.
Getting there: closer than you think
The TGV from Paris Gare de l'Est reaches Strasbourg in about 1h50, city centre to city centre. That is the whole trick of Alsace: it feels like deep countryside, but it is a morning's train from Paris. Colmar is another 30 minutes south by regional train. You do not need to fly, and you do not need a car for the two cities themselves, both are walkable and made for it.
A car earns its keep only for the Route des Vins, the wine road that threads the villages between and around the two cities. If wine villages are the point of your trip, rent from Colmar for a day or two, or we arrange a driver for a tasting day so nobody has to choose between the Riesling and the road.
Strasbourg: the grand one
Strasbourg is a real city, capital of the region and seat of the European Parliament, so it has weight the villages don't. The cathedral is the headline: a single soaring sandstone spire that was the tallest building in the world for over two centuries, with an astronomical clock that draws a crowd at solar noon. Below it spreads La Petite France, the old tanners' quarter, where the canals, locks and timbered houses give you the postcard Alsace in the middle of a working city.
Give Strasbourg a full day, more if you like museums or a slow lunch. It is the place to eat a proper tarte flambée (the thin, cream-and-bacon Alsatian answer to pizza) and to understand that the region's cooking is its own thing, neither quite French nor German.
Colmar: the pretty one
If Strasbourg is the city, Colmar is the film set. Smaller, flatter and almost impossibly picturesque, its Little Venice quarter along the Lauch river is what fills most people's camera rolls. It is compact enough to see the heart of it in a morning, which is exactly why it gets busy midday: arrive early or stay into the evening when the day-trippers leave and the lanes go quiet and golden.
Colmar also makes the best base for the wine villages, several of the prettiest are a short drive away.
The wine villages worth the detour
The Route des Vins is lined with villages that look competitively adorable. The three most people fall for:
- Riquewihr, a walled village that barely changed since the 16th century, deep in Riesling country.
- Eguisheim, built in concentric rings around a castle, regularly voted one of France's most beautiful villages.
- Kaysersberg, birthplace of Albert Schweitzer, with a ruined castle above the vines.
You cannot do all of them well in a day. Pick two, have lunch in one, taste in the other, and leave the rest for next time.
How many days, and when to go
Two nights is the sweet spot: one for Strasbourg, one for Colmar and a wine village or two. Three nights lets you slow right down and add the Route des Vins properly. Alsace also pairs beautifully with Paris, four Paris days plus two in Alsace makes one clean, unhurried trip with a single easy train in the middle.
For season: late spring and early autumn are Alsace at its best, warm, green, and the September grape harvest bringing the villages to life. And then there is Christmas. Strasbourg and Colmar host some of the most famous Christmas markets in Europe, magical but genuinely crowded, so if you come in December, book everything early and go in with your eyes open.
How we plan Alsace
We plan the whole thing from here in France: the trains from Paris with seats reserved, the right base in each city, a driver or a rental for the wine day, tables booked under your name, and the villages timed so you arrive before or after the crowds rather than in the thick of them. Hotels at their public rates, restaurant reservations and official tickets at face price, tours and transfers at clear package prices quoted upfront, all in writing before you commit. See our France trips for the combined Paris-and-Alsace versions, or how Chic Trip works for the method and the fee.
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About Chic Trip
Chic Trip is a Paris-based trip planning and booking concierge for American travelers. Founder Frederic Canesso and his Paris team design day-by-day itineraries and coordinate restaurant tables, official timed entries, tours and airport transfers. The planning fee depends on trip length and group size. Restaurant reservations and official tickets are at face price, hotels at public rates, and tours and transfers at clear package prices quoted upfront. Tell us about this trip or read our traveler reviews and feedback.
