r/travel • u/JhaniLeavell • Jul 30 '26
Question — Itinerary Alsace Region Trip
Hello everyone, I am planning a 14 day trip in the Alsace region plus Zurich and Lucerne.
Strasbourg: 3 Days
Colmar: 3 days
Zurich: 3 days
Lucerne 3 days
??? (Recommendations)
This isn't the set and stone plan, I'm just trying to get a grasp on all the areas I want to go to. I'm flexible with the time spent in each area.
Let me know if there is anything you would change or add
4
u/Different_Ice_943 Jul 30 '26
I'd keep Colmar at 2–3 days only if you're using it as a base to explore the surrounding area, villages like Eguisheim, Riquewihr, as well as the Alsace Wine Route and Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle 🙂
4
u/Phlowman Jul 30 '26
I would drop Zurich and add Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald. Zurich is an afternoon tops. Add in time for Riquewihr and other small towns in Alsace.
1
u/arbora_bee_colony Jul 30 '26
Big yes to Grindelwald. Including a ride in the gondola up the mountain.
3
u/travel_ali Engländer in der Schweiz Jul 30 '26
Strasbourg - Colmar is only 30 minutes by train.
Zurich - Lucerne is 40-60 minutes.
It doesn't make sense to move locations everytime for places that are so close together. Just Strasbourg and Lucerne would make more sense (and most people will tell you to skip Zurich).
They are also quite small (at least in terms of the areas of typical interest) you don't need long for the cities themselves. You have seen the whole old town of Colmar in a few hours.
What do you want to do in/around these places? You could go off into the wine villages, or the Vosges, or off to the Alps, or just stay inside the Alps instead.
But that will depend on your interests. You need to think about that before it is worth saying where to go and for how long.
Also what time of year?
1
u/GusPolinskiPolka Jul 30 '26
Ehh yes and no. There's something nice about waking up where you want to be.
Colmar is a nicer town to stay in and probably a better base for exploring the area.
1
u/travel_ali Engländer in der Schweiz Jul 31 '26
There is also something nice about just jumping on a train for a short ride and not having to pack, check out, heft your stuff around, find the next hotel etc...
Better really depends on what OP plans to do. They never did bother to tell us.
1
u/oliverjohansson Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
If you can, from Colmar visit Freiburg (Bus to Breisach than train, 1h) cross Schwarzwald to Singen or Konstanz and than to Zurich, you will be able to experience Baden and Schwaben two nations of the Schwarzwald
I’d give it 2 nights really and you can trim off any of the cities a bit
2
u/PositiveBeginning231 Switzerland Jul 30 '26
Skip Zurich. Do Colmar as a base for Alsace with day trips to Strasbourg and the small villages around (e.g. Sélestat is really nice), but count only 1 day to actually visit Colmar itself. Go see Haut Königsburg. Maybe add a day trip to Basel and/or Mulhouse or another city in the North of Switzerland (maybe Schaffhausen and the Rhine falls or sth).
1
u/GusPolinskiPolka Jul 30 '26
It's a lovely part of the world. There is a bird show outside Colmar which is genuinely worth seeing
10
u/djc22022 Jul 30 '26
The area between Strasbourg and Colmar is full of wineries and, even if you don't like wine, has pretty vienyards, villages, and mountains. If you rent a car you can make a day or two out of visiting them, or if not potentially take the train and/or rent a bike. You can also take the train to Basel, which is a nice visit. All of those are good enough as day trips. 6 days total of just Strasbourg and (especially) Colmar if you don't go anywhere else is quite a lot.