We are planning a barge trip in Burgundy in
Oct. and have about six days on our own before it starts. Could we do both places at
a leisurely pace or is one more interesting?

IMO yes - they are not that far apart and each is relatively small.

check distance from Beaune to Colmar for distance: www.mappy.com

If i had to chose i'd take Burgundy in a wine beat

I have nothing to offer on this, except to say that there was a recent thread in which someone asked a similar question, with about the same time frame, and there were some good responses.

How long ago was it?

You didn't say what's planned for your barge trip. If you visit a few chateaux, Dijon, Beaune, Auxerre, & Vezelay on your barge journey, then I think a trip to Allsace would fit in nicely. 6 days to see all the stuff in both Burgundy & Alsace couldn't be done in a leisurly pace, IMO.

I think Alsace has cuter small villages and the countryside is prettier, but there are more Chateaux and some of my favorite larger towns are in Burgundy (Dijon & Auxerre). Burgundy is larger, and we found ourselves spending too much time in the car on freeways when we were there for 2 weeks this past Sept. Alsace can be "visited" in less time than Burgundy - we recently spent a week in Alsace, which was about 2 days too long (didn't visit Strasbourg, however - saw it on previous trips through the area).

Stu Dudley

It has been awhile, but I loved the Alsace region..it seemed to have more of a German influence in its architecture and cuteness, if there is such a word.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34900913