Please help me plan return to Strasbourg after 40 years
 

I lived very happily in Strasbourg for a year 40 years ago but have not had the opportunity to return. I would like to bring my husband (of 35 years) there in June when we are in France to attend a function in Paris. He has been to Paris many times but never outside Paris.

Reading Strasbourg hotel reviews has me baffled. I was a student living in a walk-up apartment last time I was there.

We would love to stay somewhere charming (perhaps near La Petite France or la cathedral but we are open to different ideas). Can anyone help me sort out a plan for a romantic nostalgia homecoming trip back to Strasbourg? Our dates are approximately 4-10 June so I need to get cracking.

Thank you so much in advance for any help or insights about the city and that time period.

I would start looking for hotels on booking.com. You can filter by location, rate and any other criteria you have. Since booking.com only posts reviews after people have stayed at the properties, you can be fairly confident of their accuracy. Objectivity and experience v. expectations, however, are for you to discern. Once you've narrowed it down to a few options, come back and ask if anyone here has stayed at the properties you're considering as well as look for reviews on other websites. And FYI, just because booking.com says there are no rooms available for your dates does not mean the hotel is sold out. You can always contact them directly, and some people actually prefer to research on booking.com but make reservations directly with the hotel.

For the other stuff I would start reading guidebooks and online travel sites. I also haven't been to Strasbourg in decades, so I don't feel in a position to make any recommendations.

I don't understand, what has you baffled? Different people just hve different tastes, I think, for what are hotel features/decor they like or not.
I stayed in the Hotel de l'Europe and loved it, it is in the Petite France area. I have no idea if you'd call it charming or not, though, that's the problem. The rooms have modern touches (thank goodness) It's not some dolled up quaint hotel, but I liked it. It is not totally sleek/black and white etc like many hotels are nowadays. Most hotels it seems to me, even if they didn't used to be. The Hotel de l'Europe is probably one that you might still call charming compared to many other ones in Strasbourg.

There is nothing baffling about staying in Strasbourg except for people arriving by car. The city center has been redesigned into an excellent pedestrian zone and when you try to drive inward, the streets always turn you around to send you back out. It is quite clever. And the tramway gets you anywhere you need to go these days.

Thank you for these thoughtful replies. I am sure that there is nothing intrinsically baffling about Strasbourg; the issue is me -- that I lived there as a 22 year old graduate student at one stage of life and plan to go back as a 60-something adult with a 70-something husband at another stage of life. The online reviews haven't pointed me to a clear choice of where to stay and my knowledge of the city is desperately outmoded. If anyone can recommend a hotel or guest house, I am all ears since Fodorites have been flawless guides to so many Asian hotels for my family. Secondly, if anyone has opinions about Strasbourg-based activities, I welcome those thoughts. Thank you for your kindness and expertise.

We stayed at the Monopole Metropole because it is next to the Heiligenstein Patisserie :toj:
A lovely hotel, 5 mins walk from train station, and pleasant walk into old town.
The boat cruise was great, and it exposed us to areas we later enjoyed wandering, doing a big loop walk.
Besides the very pretty old town, we found other lovely parks with gracious buildings on those avenues.
It was an easy train ride to beautiful Colmar and Selestat (lucky to be there on a market day, this is a charming town too) where we took the bus to the fortress. Also, the car museum at Mulhouse is amazing, and I am no car fan. Tram stop direct to the museum right outside station, so easy.
We also did a half day bus tour of the nearby villages, loved Hunawihr.
We

We stayed at the Monopole Metropole because it is next to the Heiligenstein Patisserie :toj:
A lovely hotel, 5 mins walk from train station, and pleasant walk into old town.
The boat cruise was great, and it exposed us to areas we later enjoyed wandering, doing a big loop walk.
Besides the very pretty old town, we found other lovely parks with gracious buildings on those avenues.
It was an easy train ride to beautiful Colmar and Selestat (lucky to be there on a market day, this is a charming town too) where we took the bus to the fortress. Also, the car museum at Mulhouse is amazing, and I am no car fan. Tram stop direct to the museum right outside station, so easy.
We also did a half day bus tour of the nearby villages, loved Hunawihr.

I highly recommend the Hotel Hannong. It's extremely well located, in the rue du 22 novembre, a short walk from the train station but also a short walk to everything in central Strasbourg, including the cathedral area and La Petite France. It's modern rather than traditional in style, but we found everything impeccable.

This was our first trip to Strasbourg, and we loved it. I hope your return is as gratifying.

Hotel Strasbourg - Hôtel Hannong Strasbourg

I hesitated to join this conversation, since I haven't stayed in Strasbourg yet. My husband and I - close to your ages - will be there in late summer. We have booked a room at Hotel Rohan, which I see, after checking today, has very good reviews on booking.com. (although we had not booked with them). It is near the center of the city, and since we will be arriving by car, I checked with them via email regarding parking about a week ago. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a very gracious email within a day with lots of good information. Perhaps this will help in your search.


https://www.booking.com/hotel/fr/hotel-de-rohan.html

Being a budget traveler, among hotels where I have been very happy to stay are the Ibis directly across from the train station, and the Ibis Styles in the Petite France area. But I have actually stayed in at least 10 different hotels in Strasbourg over the years. My hotels are chosen for convenience, not "old world" charm. The building I live in is almost 220 years old so I get plenty of that at home

We stayed at the Rohan in December 2016 and really liked it. The location is great and as you mentioned, they have parking. We enjoyed the boat ride as well as all the Christmas markets which you obviously won’t have, but just wandering the streets and looking at the sights and shops is fun any time of year.

One restaurant we enjoyed, at Denisea’s suggestion was La Cloche a Fromage. Tip - don’t order both the cheese fondue AND the raclette as we did - talk about cheese overload!

I have visited Strasbourg twice, most recently in September 2015. Both times I stayed at the Hotel Suisse, right behind (or beside) the cathedral. Friendly staff, very good breakfast, not upmarket but comfortable.

Hotel Suisse | Hotel Strasbourg | Alsace Romantic Hotels | Hotel Strasbourg Cathedral | official site

I would also put in a good word for eating at Strissel and at La Cloche a Fromage. For more see https://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com...ng-strasbourg/

First time I stayed in La Petite France. While it was a pretty area, I realized it was too far from most things. I checked around the Cathedral area, but found out that in summer, there is continual loud music light show at the Cathedral square at night, so I would not want to stay there if I wanted to go to bed early. The second time I stayed near the Gutenberg Square which was near the center but away from the noise of the Cathedral square. I am heading again to Strasbourg next month and plan to stay near the Gutenberg square.
Regarding the days you are going. If you are going there on a train, I am not sure if you are aware of the ongoing train strikes. https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...rance-1650274/
Right now, both June 4th and 10th are not announced strike dates. But if you want to change your travel days, recommend avoiding the announced train strike dates.

According to the Strasbourg tourism web site the sound and light show only happens in July and August, and it is all over the city, not just at the cathedral. There was a show at the cathedral when I was there, in celebration of an anniversary, and I did not find it to be a problem.

The huge crowds around the cathedral, Place Kléber and a few other areas would bother me more than a light show anywhere -- if I were disturbed by noise, which luckily I am not. I always request a hotel room facing the street and the most activity because seeing things happen is why I want to travel, even in the evening when I am finished with wandering around.

I do understand that a lot of people want a "quiet" room, but I can sleep on a plastic chair in a bus station when it is time for me to sleep.

Thank you, all. After much looking and noting that Strasbourg is quite booked up for our time period, we splurged and went with the Hotel Rohan.

I have made a note to check out Zum Strissel, La Cloche au Fromage, and Le Mun's and Le Kuhn. (I loved stinky Munster cheese when I lived there years ago and I would also like to fine value-priced restos since the hotel wound up being high end and we are staying a luxurious 8 nights.

We will then go to Paris via TGV if the published strike dates don't move into our departure time zone.

Two more questions:
1. If anyone has any other restaurants or cafes to recommend, please advise.

2. Has anyone taken an organized tour day trip on the route du vin? We are not going to rent a car and my days of taking it in by bicycle and train are over. We would like my husband to see some of that beautiful area outside of Strasbourg though so would consider an organized tour that wasn't too hideous. I was planning to go to the tourism office on-site but maybe someone here has some advice.

Thanks.

I just did a day trip to Colmar on the train.