I'll be spend a few days in this area. I'm not sure of the exact itinerary or which cities I'll actually visit, , except for ending up in Stasbourg for the train.I'd prefer not to rent a car, so I'd appreciate information on alternate ways of getting around. Is bus travel between cities easy?

How are you planning to arrive in Basel? If you are flying in, there's a bus that takes you directly to the Freiburg train station, it costs 20 euro, I believe.

Of course, I hope you will spend a bit of time in my city, Basel From Basel, there are easy and frequent trains to Freiburg, Colmar and Strasbourg.

If you start in Basel, then I'd suggest some time in Basel, train to Freiburg (about an hour, no changes), bus to Colmar (about 1 hour, 15 minutes, one change), then train to Strasbourg.

Hi Aa

www.bahn.de

There are frequent trains between all the cities you mention - or at least rail links if not direct trains.

Basel to Freiburg is perhaps an hour or less - Freiburg-Strasbourg often requires a change in Kiel or some other town on the mainline in Germany to cross the Rhine to Strasbourg

Strasbourg to Colmar lots of trains and about 30 mins

Colmar to Basel lots of trains and less than an hour i'd say. Just buy your train tickets as you go - never a problem getting on these trains. No reason to rent a car to go to those cities, where cars are not really welcomed anyway and you just have to pay a ton to park them.

German rail web site that Ira mentions has all the schedules and for Germany connections, fares in euros. But you really do not need schedules as trains run hourly at least between all these cities (Strasbourg needing a change of trains otherwise direct).

If you have time Baden-Baden is right in this area and to me is one of Europe's most amazing spa towns - check out the ornate old casino where once royals and the wealth cavorted in the 1800s.

Pal: "Freiburg-Strasbourg often requires a change in Kiel or some other town on the mainline in Germany"

Pal, don't you mean Kehl, not Kiel? Traveling from Freibug to Kiel to catch a train to Strasbourg would be one heckuva journey ;-)

Yup Kehl for sure - not Kiel - thanks for the correcto