Hello,

We are landing in Frankfurt and then spending two nights in Baden Baden. From there we will be
staying in Colmar for 5 days four nights and then driving to Nancy for two nights three days to explore Nancy, Metz as a day trip and maybe Verdun. Would love to hear feedback if we should skip the Lorraine portion and stay the extra nights in the Alsace. Also thinking about doing a train day trip to Basel if we can squeeze it in. We are two active senior couples with a car. We enjoy learning about the differences in the provinces, culture, history, walking tours and beutiful buildings. We will of course experience the wine but are not big on stopping at vineyards throughout the trip. Would like to learn about the differences but not all about the wine. Any suggestions or thoughts, thank you in advance.

I find Lorraine dull.

Many restaurants in Alsace offer tasting flights or look at village websites for local tastings.
Alt, go into one of the bigger distributers in each village and taste, either free (buy something) or paid for. Trouble with this approach is you access the cheaper wines

I think Mulhouse is a better visit than Basel, but...

A day out in Strasbourg would be good

Colmar as a base... Well easy access to train but a village would be nicer

I wholeheartedly recommend Verdun. Dynamic, exciting, educational.

I just spent the last 4 days mostly in Lorraine, which is my ancestral region. I return there as often as I can, even though that is of course just personal. After a day in Belfort (which used to be part of Alsace until the Franco-Prussian war), I went to Nancy and then to Metz. Nancy can be considered to be less lively and interesting unless you are on the incredible art nouveau circuit, which is stunning. And of course there is the unmissible Place Stanislas. Metz has my personal preference for a lot of the Prussian architecture (the train station and the surrounding area) and the magnificient Cathédrale Saint Etienne. It is also a famous garden city full of flowers. The Centre Pompidou annex is also amazing for those interested in art.

On this last trip, I visited the fantastic Franco-Prussian war museum in Gravelotte for the first time. Absolutely nobody knows or cares about this war anymore, even though France lost a big chunk of its territory from 1871 to 1918. I was ashamed not to have visited this museum before because it is only 8km from my grandparents' village and my mother's birthplace. They were still in France in a border town back then...

I agree about Verdun.

If you have the time and are interested then there is a museum full of Lalique in Wingen sur Moder which is worth a visit:
https://www.musee-lalique.com/en/

It is an area where German is still very commonly spoken. We camped in Wingen sur Moder once, and the lady who collected the fees spoke German to us, we responded in a mix of French and English and we all understood each other just fine!

We were there last Sept, last leg of a monthly trip before returning the rental car in Paris. We did 5n in Riquewhir (day trips to Colmar, Strasbourg, nearby villages), 1n in Nancy, 1n in Verdun area, 1n in Esparnay. I love the art nouveau stuffs in Nancy, adore the town of Metz and enjoy the history of Verdun. There are various museums throughout Verdun and lots of serene walking paths, driving and walking was very pleasant although it's sad to learn the WWI history. Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg on the way way exceeded our expectations. The beloved forum contributor Stu Dudley loved Nancy and had detailed directions of touring, please check. Be sure to prebook building/museum access.
Depending on where you go after Lorraine, I think you would have a good variety of experience if you move fast and plan good. I visited Basel years ago, not impressed. Mullhouse (auto museums) was on my list but didn't make it. When you visit the Alsace villages, just walk behind the busy towns or stop by some vineyards and enjoy the view, no need to do wine tastings.

We spent several nights in Colmar in May of 2022. We had a great apartment with a courtyard where we could park our car dead in the center of the historic old town. It was a great location for walking Colmar, but getting in and out was a pain in the butt. In retrospect, staying in one of the surrounding villages might have been a better base.

I loved the Memorial de Verdun museum, which is the best museum dedicated to a single battle or campaign that I've seen anywhere, by a longshot.

Yes, the Mémorial de Verdun is amazing.

Hello Travelkam,

Where did you stay in Riquewhir? I was originally thinking of staying there but thought Colmar might be better since it is on the train line. We want to do the same thing you did in one base. If you don't mind sharing, how did you structure it and would you do it the same way. We do not liking doing one night anywhere and would prefer to drive and do more day trips. Why did you only stay one night in Nancy and then 1 night in Verdun, looks to be about an hour and a half drive.

If You like Art mouveau Nancy is a must.

​​​​​​Link to Riquewhir lodging - https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/751892592542921089
Its a bit small to our liking but parking and access to town is exceptional. We did single night for Nancy, Verdun, Esparnay to return car in Paris, 2 nights in Nancy or Metz as a base would have been better. Without car I wouldn't stay in small village nor going to Verdun, stay in Strasbourg or Colmar, Nancy or Metz.

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Thank you, we are two couples so your lodging would not work for us. Our reasoning for staying in Colmar was to be on the train line for Strasburg since we cannot drive car into the city. How did you get to Colmar and Strasburg, did you just drive to the nearest train station and park your car for the day? I would love to stay in Riquewhir but was worried on getting into these two cities easily.

Most of the country stations are easy, you just park up and leave the car. Colmar has a multi-storey CP near the station or you just walk to it if staying in town.

There are plenty of parking options surrounding cities, I googled garages or parking lots and used them as destinations. You can also find nearby street parking. It worked perfectly. When searching for lodgings for Alsace villages, try their outskirt area where you can park free and easily. We walked from our bnb into Riquewhir town in 5 minutes so we can get fresh hot pastries every day. There's a Best Western closed by.

I stayed on few occasions in maison Kiener. The setting and decoration are quite amazing.

https://gitesmaisondesvignerons.com/...-appartements/

Hello Everyone,

I have finalized our trip in terms of itineray. Driving from Frankfurt airport to Trier to tour the city and then spending three nights outside of Metz. Will tour Metz one day, Guided tour of Verdun and then a day in Nancy on our way to Riquewihr where we will be staying for five nights. We will spend one day in Colmar and another full day in Strasbourg (taking the train from Colmar.) That leaves two days to explore the villages. It seems everyone has their favorites. We are not so interested in all the wine stops will of course stop at one or two but not the focus of the trip. Our interests lie in learning more about the culture, history and unique stops. We would like to include Chateua du Haut-Koenigsbourg but wondering if there are some must not miss stops along the way. Also wondering if we should include Mount sainte-odile? Would love to hear opinions on best villages to include in our two days. I have been reading some very old posts by StuDudley that have been very interesting. He mentions to take the bike route versus wine route better scenery and itineray. Can anyone weigh in if that is still valid advice? Also out last day driving back to Frankfurt we could make some additional stops since staying in the airport the night before so gives us an additional day to meander back to the airport. Thank you for any feedback you can provide.

The wine and the food is built into the culture

The cycle path is better than the road but there are miles of foot paths which are even better than the cycle path. Just ask TI or your hotel or the haut alsace website.

I like Eguisheim because the circular design is not militaristic but commercial from the middle ages.

Going back to Frankfurt, stay in Bad Durkheim. In one of the spa hotels.

I just spent 13 days in Alsace, three nights in Strasbourg, two nights in Colmar, and the remainder in an apartment in Ribeauvillé. A couple of thoughts to share with you:

Train travel between Strasbourg and Colmar is frequent, quick, and inexpensive. You can purchase your tickets through the SNCF-Connect app or at a TER kiosk in the station. Colmar, while attractive, is considerably smaller; we preferred Strasbourg simply because we found more things to look at.

There are two restaurants I would recommend in Colmar: Aux Armes de Colmar, for a range of traditional Alsatian cuisine. The food was good, and the service and ambiance timely and hospitable. Continuing the notion of Alsatian cuisine, you will see tarte flambé on every menu. They are not all created equally, but the jewel in the crown is La Soï in Colmar, it's really all they serve, and they are delicious. You have to call both places to make a reservation.

https://www.restaurant-auxarmesdecolmar.fr

https://lasoi.fr

About the villages of Alsace: personally, I think you could drive yourself crazy trying to visit a lot of them, and you will find that there are certain shapes, colours, and feelings that get repeated over and over. The more popular villages are often crowded with visitors during the day, but I agree with bilboburgler, Eguisheim is particularly attractive.

Our most enjoyable pastime was walking, either village to village, or driving to a village, parking, and then walking a loop. Many of these trails follow the cycle route, but for the walkers, there are lots of dirt paths through forests and fields; you really will get a sense of what Alsace feels like when you walk through vineyards and tiny villages that are less visited. (Hunawihr is a good example of a particularly quiet village.)

If you are staying in Riquewirh, there is one walk in particular that I would suggest: the path from Riquewihr to Ribeauvillé (via Hunawihr, as it happens), which follows those cycle routes that bilbo mentions. It's about 4.5 kilometres each way if you stay on the roads, so a total of 9, but not really too stressful, and very few vehicles. We enjoyed it so much that we walked it twice. You can get a little brochure for the walk from the tourism office in either Riquewihr or Ribeauvillé. It includes a topographical map, so nav is easy.

Train from Colmar to Strasbourg and you're staying in Riquewhir? You need a full day in Colmar, a long full day in Strasbourg, assuming you're driving from your Riquewhir lodging. Riquewhir TI has very detailed maps for drives, walks, and bikes. There's a self service bike rental closed to TI.
Mt St Odines was on my plan but didn't make it.
One day in surrounding villages, one day to a little far to Mulhouse.
When driving, you may pick some D numbered road (vs A auto way aka highway) for better scenery.
Don't miss Kouglopf & Cie bakery in Riquewhir.

Hi Travelkam, sorry for confusion, we do plan on spending one full day in Strasbourg. I had read that we cannot take our rental car into Strasbourg, so we will drive from Riquewhir to Colmar to park our car and do a day trip to Strasbourg. The Kouglopf & Cie bakery in Riquewhir is a three minute walk from our house, we are staying in the ramparts. Thank you for your comments.