Route des Vins
 

What are my options for doing this route without a car? Train, bus or small tour van? What is the best point of origin: Strasbourg or Colmar?

Well Alsace wine route begins near German border at Wissembourg but just north of Colmar would be a good starting point - take buses to say Riqueweher or Ribeauvaux (sp?) two cute wine villages and then buses south - not sure there are buses the whole way though -trains go to Colmar and bigger towns.

Really hard to do sans car or bicycle save hitting a few towns but maybe buses are better than I think?

For train info check www.voyages-sncf.com - French Railways - for buses Google the towns in between. For lots on French trains check www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com.

Colmar or local tourist offices probably have info on bus or mini-bus tours of local vineyards.

There are bike rentals in Colmar too so you could cycle to the nearby wine towns north or south of Colmar - I biked the road north from Colmar to Germany once - really neat, especially around Riquewehr and Ribeauville - flat mostly as it runs sinuously along edges of foothills of Vosges Mountains.

Some official information: https://www.tourisme-alsace.com/en

thanks PalenQ and kerouac

Well the Alsace bit up near the Wissembourg is pretty enough but the wine is less good. Strasbourg is sort of out of the wine area which starts again a bit further south. The best of the wines are from the southern part and the towns names above are fine.

Buses generally are useless as they operate to the school timetable (who wants to get up that early).

My prefered means of transport would be bike first and train second. You can combine bikes on trains (but not all trains).
I've ridden the lower half (and the upper half... less good) and it is easy enough with the road, the bike path and the through the vines routes (you'll need to use all three at some time).

Colmar, lots of people like Colmar. For me too big and too focused (at taking money out of my pocket). I also prefer the vinyard towns in the evening when the main coaches have gone away back to Colmar and the places are a bit quieter. Also early morning walks in the vinyards is lovely.

I've stayed in a bunch of the places, the best bang for your buck is Eguisheim (lots of vignerons in a small place and enough restaurants). Much the same can be said of Riqueweher or Ribeauvaux

Language issues, shouldn't be a problem in these larger places, but if you want to go to small ones then I'd take the mini-van approach as they will speak German and French and that is about it.

have a look at the Alsace section on mybikeguide.co.uk for some more ideas

Just a thought to the OP, triangle this to the editors to ask for the word Alsace to be added, there are hoggins of "Route des vins"