TAW

How does this first draft itinerary look to you, the experts?

Fly in/out Paris (from SFO)

Mon. Depart SFO
Tues - Arrive Paris (CDG); take taxi to hotel
Wed – Sun – Paris

Mon – take TGV to Strasbourg, pick up rental car & drive to??? wherever we decide to stay – Colmar/ Kayserberg/Riquewihr/Ribbeauville/Oberni or???

We prefer smaller towns where we can walk to restaurants, shops, etc.
Towns that are easy to drive in/out of and reasonably flat so that we’re not climbing hills all the time (too difficult for us now).
We would prefer a place with an elevator, A/C, and parking at least very close to the hotel. In lieu of elevator would need ground floor room.
Am I asking for too much?
Budget is less than $250 USD/night
We will have a car and don’t mind driving in the country or mountains…we just try to avoid the larger towns/cities.

We will base somewhere in Alsace Mon thru Sat when we return to Strasbourg, turn in rental car and take TGV to Avignon.

Then, for final location we pick up another rental car at Avignon and drive to where we’re staying near Saint Saturnin-Les-Apt.
I choose this place to relax & unwind before going home. We’ll be here 4 or 5 nts. depending on time of flight home from CDG.

If I have a 4pm flight out of CDG can I get there in time for flight if I leave Avignon in the morning of same day? Is it too risky?

So, basically I need recs for place to stay in Alsace, itinerary critique, and any tidbits about Alsace in general. We were thinking of maybe driving into Germany or Switzerland for a day trip on one of our days. Any advice on that?

This will most likely be our last trip to Europe so we have selected places we’ve never been to.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Southam

A multi-destination itinerary won't cost any more and will use your travel time a little more efficiently. From SFO you can fly to Strasbourg. Of course you will have to make at least one connection but the price is the same as a Paris round trip ticket. Reconfigure your time line so your Paris stay is at the end of the trip, flying home from there.

TAW

I forgot to mention that this trip is planned for mid-May,2014.

Southam: we're doing Paris first b/c that's probably going to be the busiest part of our trip. If we do it last we're too tired to enjoy it. At the beginning of the trip we're excited and ready to go...experience in how we travel has taught us that. Thanks for the input.

michele_d

Hi TAW,
I think your itinerary has a nice relaxed feel to it. Not too rushed. We have been to all these places and spent the same amount of time in each with the exception of one week in Paris. I thought it was a perfect a mount of time in each area for a first trip.

We absolutely adore the Alsace region. The quaint small, colorful villages, the rolling hillsides covered in vineyards. We stayed in Obernai and thought the location was great for exploring the region and driving the back roads.

A long day trip to either Switzerland or Beaune/Dijon would be fun also. Don't miss Haut Konigsberg. It is a lovely castle set upon a hill in the Alsace. Lovely way to spend the day. We had a great lunch at their restaurant after visiting the castle.

Have a great trip!
Michele

msteacher

Regarding your return flight, although you could theoretically make a late afternoon flight from Paris leaving early the same day from Avignon, I would personally be really nervous that entire day. Not much wiggle room for the unexpected delay.

Taking the above flight advice in reverse, would it be possible to fly home from Nice or Marseille? If not, I think I'd opt for a last night in Paris just to avoid that feeling of "will I make it?" throughout that last day.

Dukey1

Currently, there is at least ONE TGV timing from Avignon which takes you directly to the CDG airport arriving around 1:30 in the afternoon. Of course, that schedule could change. Even if you didn't go directly to the airport the TGV time Avignon to Paris itself is only 2hrs 39 minutes for direct services.

As to flights, you can check a site such as Kayak.com for price differences but I think you may find that flying to many of the non-Paris airports in France other than the obvious ones such as Nice are going to require a flight into Paris first.

There is direct TGV service from the CDG airport to Strasbourg depending on the timing.

TAW

Thank you, please keep it coming.

Michele_d: yes, Haut Konigsberg is on my list to see and Obernai is one of the places I'm considering staying.

Right now, I've seen a direct TGV train from Paris Est to Strasbourg. My goal is to get trains from 'A' to 'B' w/o connections. When I plug in random dates on the train websites, I can see that they are available for where I want to go. So, I think I'll be OK there.
This trip MUST be unstressful, i.e. no changing planes if nonstop is an option, same for trains. No driving in large cities such as Paris. No changing hotels every few days...we like to just park ourselves in one area and do day trips.
We have the option of leaving Avignon the day prior to our flt. and staying at CDG...might do that, depends on my flt times and train schedule.
I will research flying home from Nice or Marseille.
Thanks again, everyone!

Any advice on Hotels in Alsace?

Michael

Why not an open jaw SFO-Paris Nice-SFO?

isabel

If you do decide to fly home from Paris, and don't want the Paris portion at the end of the trip, then I suggest you book the last night at an "airport" hotel. There are about a dozen at CDG with free shuttles from the hotel to the terminals. There is a TGV train station in Terminal 2. You can train from either Strasbourg or Avignon directly to CDG (no need to go into Paris itself). But due to unexpected delays/problems I would not plan to take a train on the same day as an international flight. It's only a couple hours or so from either of those cities so you can spend most of the last day there and take an evening train to CDG just for the overnight. Makes the day of travel a LOT less stressful.

Re your itinerary. I was actually just in both places last month (trip report and photos to come eventually). First, even though you say you don't like cities, consider spending at least a day or two IN Strasbourg. It does not have a big city feel, it's just a beautiful place. I got the Hotel Maison Rouge on booking.com for half the list price. It's a four star hotel right in the center of town (but still only a 15 minute walk from the train station, of course you can take a taxi or tram as well).

After a day or two there then pick up the car to see the small towns. I only got to Colmar (day trip from Strasbourg) as I did not have a car - it's a half hour by train. But I think I would take a day or two from the Alsace portion and add it to Provence.

grandmere

We loved staying in an apartment from this site in Riquewihr www.i-love-riquewihr.com

tom18

Check out Kaysersburg as a place to stay in Alsace. Nice, pretty little town.

Also, you could do a day trip to Freiburg from Alsace. Very lovely and lively university town.

TAW

Hi,
Thanks for your replies. Lots to think about. I am convinced to NOT go to CDG on day of flt. I will go the evening before. OR, I might fly home from Marseille or Nice but they don't have nonstop to SFO.

Still trying to find hotel in Alsace.

Isabel, I like the idea of spending more time in Strasbourg. Will definitely consider it. Thanks!

msteacher

You might consider going immediately to Strasbourg on arrival (you'll be tired from travel anyway, so just plow on through), then put all your Paris days at the end to set you up for your flight home. This also has the advantage of eliminate a travel day somewhere in the middle of your trip.

Underhill

Given the proptasilway strikes in France, I wouldn't bet on no strike the day you need to get from Avignon back to Paris. So go the day before and spend an extra day in Paris: no hardship!

Underhill

Many flights from Nice back to the U.S. go through Heathrow.

My previous post lost in the posting:

"Given the propensity for railway strikes...

grandmere

Hotel in Kaysersberg: lechambard.fr

TAW

grandmere,
thank you, that place looks lovely!
I think I'm way too early to book...lots of places show no vacancy for my dates and I think it's b/c it's so far off. I will email and ask directly.

michele_d

Hi TAW,
It is actually not too early to book. If you have places in mind just email them and inquire. They will let you know when to check back if necessary. We booked 95% of our stays for our three month trip at least 10 months out to be sure we got the accommodations we wanted, and more importantly to stick to our accommodation budget and not be stuck with leftovers.

Your trip does sound very relaxed and enjoyable.
Happy planning!
Michele

TAW

Michele_d, Thanks, that's what I'm going to start doing is emailing the ones I think would work. I'm finding many mixed reviews so it's hard to decide.
My goal is to have a relaxed trip. I just hope DH doesn't say "Why are we staying so long in this place? What's there to do?"
Even though I try to get him involved in the decisions. Oh, well...

michele_d

Just tell your hubby that moving around eats up the better part of a day and you plan to take day trips from each of your locations. Even if you do not drive for the day trips, you can just look at a map, decide somewhere to go for the day and hop on a train and go. How fun and adventurous would that be? Train travel is fabulous in Europe. No packing and unpacking. You can't be spur of the moment like that if you are constantly on the go moving from place to place.