Hello,

My husband and I are flying into Baden Baden for a four day weekend in mid-December. I heard the Strasbourg Christmas market is great, so we would like to visit that, but we also want to visit the spa in B-B and would love to visit some wineries. Will any of them be open in December? Does anyone have any further advice regarding what to do in this area in mid-December?

Most importantly, however, is that we are having a really tough time finding a place to stay. Does anyone have any recommendations for a reasonably priced place that might be a cute village outside these areas?

Finally, any idea on the cost of public transport between B-B and Strasbourg? I can't seem to find it anywhere on the web. We also are wondering how much public transport from the B-B airport to the town center is on a Saturday (as there doesn't seem to be a public bus running that day).

All help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

>cost of public transport
complete and accurate info here:
www.bahn.de

As noted, www.bahn.de will give you the complete info, but offhand, I do know there are several daily trains running to Strasbourg (we were in the BB train station a couple of weeks ago and looked at the schedule board).

Re housing, are you having difficulty with finding hotels in BB itself? I suggest you contact the Baden-Baden tourist office. I just did a check with their online booking service for the dates of 9-13 and 16-19 December (both week-ends in mid-December) and found many hotels available. They will book the room for you.

http://www.baden-baden.de/en/tourism...ml&nav=932

Ask the tourist office about airport transportation. They are very helpful (and speak English).

As for the outlying areas, I'm not so sure. We tried that one year and weren't happy with what was available. It was just too quiet or not that interesting in the villages near Baden-Baden (also not particularly well served by public transportation).

B-B is hardly a big city, it's a lovely resort town. I think you would probably enjoy your trip most staying in B-B, doing day trips to Strasbourg (also possibly to Freibourg or Basel, both easily reached by train from B-B).

FYI, the B-B train station is not in BB itself, it's in Baden-Oos. There are frequent buses; I think the cost is about 1.5 euros and it's only a 10 minute ride to downtown. Taxis are about 10 euros, as I recall.

One other thing, if you use the BB tourist office site to check hotel availability, you could then try to contact one of the available hotels directly and see if they have a better rate. A couple of the hotels have told us they tend to offer better rates through direct contact because the tourist office does charge them a fee for the booking.

Although the Quellenhof is probably full, you might try the Hotel Beeg, doubles are about 100 euro per night and it is VERY close to the Caracalla spa (even closer than the Quellenhof) and also has a terrific on-site cafe/pastry shop. www.hotel-beeg.com
(mostly German and Russian clients, so it's not reviewed on Trip Advisor).

Visit the site of the Baden-Baden Tourist office and you will have no problem in finding accomodation in mid December. There are several wineries in the Rebland area (a suburb of Baden-Baden) where tasting are offered (e.g. Alde God in Bühlertal or others in the Neuweier area). They are all open in December. Baden-Baden itself has a nice little Christmas Market around the Kurhaus with mulled wine and all the other Xmas stuff typical for this time of the year. Strassburg can be easily reached by direct train from Baden-Baden (check with Deutsche Bahn.com).Their Christmas Market is quite large and one of the nicest I have seen.
Public buses are running every day at various times (to meet planes) from B-B Airport to B-B train station in Oss. From there take a taxi to downtown.