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Relaxed biking crossing the hilly Alsatian wine country by quiet country roads. Taste the delicious, local Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris. Enjoy the beautiful panoramas of the Rhine Valley and the Black Forest. Stop in a cozy village full of half-timbered houses, nice shops and terrace. Clamped between the Vosges and the Rhine Valley lie the Alsace vineyards, home of the Riesling, Pinot Noir and Gewürztraminer. Grapes thrive best in a sunny climate in this the shadow of the Vosges. Because Alsace is France's No. 1 bicycle region, with many expanded Véloroutes, the bicycle is the ideal means of transportation in this beautiful wine region.
You start the holiday in Strasbourg, a beautiful city where there is much to see and experience.
After check-in, visit the beautiful historic city center. This city is not only very beautiful, but also has a very interesting history being a frontier town. Stroll through the narrow paved cobbled streets and look at the beautiful half-timbered houses with painted, stone gates and intimate courtyards.
You’ll leave the inner city of Strasbourg in a pleasant way via a well-indicated cycle path. The drive to the south-western town of Obernai leads you through charming villages, along beautiful castles and winding vineyards to the beginning of the 'Route des Vins'. Enjoy delicious Alsatian cuisine in one of the many restaurants in charming Obernai.
Challenge: 37.1km, 270m ascent, 224m descent
You are on your way to Riquewihr, a medieval town, located in the heart of the Alsatian wine region. This wonderful wine village is counted as 'Les Plus Beaux Villages de France' (or 'the most beautiful villages of France'). The combination of her beautiful architecture and world-famous wines gave Riquewihr the nickname 'The Pearl of Alsace'.
Challenge: 49km, 495m ascent, 395m descent
Visit beautiful Turckheim, a walled and fortified town. In any event, take a walk along the many halftimbered houses, which are typical of Alsace. Bike along scenic wine villages like Kaysersberg and end your ride in Colmar. You can make this cycling day more challenging by making an extra loop through the area with the five castles.
Challenge: 36.2km, 271m ascent, 361m descent
End of your trip after breakfast. We advise you to extend your stay in order to take the time to visit the beautiful city of Colmar.
All accommodations are carefully selected because of their location, atmosphere and/or unique services.
We choose comfortable 2*/3* hotels or B&Bs where all rooms have private en-suite bathroom and every morning breakfast are included.
For this trip you can choose between Comfort and Comfort +. The accommodations for a Comfort+ trip, will be in 3*/4 * hotels wherever possible (supplement applied).
The bike rental includes the drop-off fee for the bike’s return
GIANT Argento 3 GTS, 21 Speed
The bikes come with pannier, handlebar bag, spare tube, tools, pump, helmet and lock
Giant Entour, Giant EnergyPak 400Wh
4 Nights included
2/3 Star Hotels or 3/4 Star Hotels (supplement applied)
Tourist tax included
Breakfast included, Halfboard optional on request
Maps and tourist information on all the places of interest
24/7 Bilingual Emergency hotline
Luggage transport to your next accommodations. Luggage accepted per person: 1 suitcase or travel bag (20 kg maximum)
For time tables and further information check the website of SNCF or rome2rio for all French National trains (SNCF).
We strongly advise you to download the sncf mobile app prior to departure.
If you want to travel on a train with your bike, you can find more information via this link.
Parking possibilities in Strasbourg (preferable to book in advance)
We will supply the directions of this trip with a personalized code which gives you access to our travel App.
Strasbourg airport is the closest airport. Within Europe there are many flights into Strasbourg, including Ryanair, Germania and Hop. You can also take an inter-continental flight through KLM, Iberia, Air France and others. From the airport a shuttle train (4x per hour) takes you to Strasbourg center (approx. 9 min).
From Paris airport, you can get to Strasbourg by the TGV (high speed train) from Paris gare de l'Est (approx. 1h50). At the end of your trip you can take the local train (TER) from Colmar to Strasbourg (approx. 35 min), where you can get to Paris.
For timetables and further information check the website of SNCF or rome2rio for all French National trains (SNCF).
From Paris to Strasbourg (approx. 4h45 - 495 km/310 mi). Acces to driving routes see the website ViaMichelin.
Many of your recommended places to visit (Ribeauville, Turkheim, Molsheim, the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar), were all great recommendations that we enjoyed very much.
Hotel de l’Europe were so professional and lovely in Strasbourg. Hotel Goveneur moved us to an air conditioned room in a heatwave (thank God!), hotel in Riquewihr had a lovely pool and lady at breakfast filled up our cycling water bottles with cold water and crushed ice!! Hotel at Colmar gave us a beautiful large suite that we enjoyed so much. They also had a nice indoor pool we enjoyed. Hotel in Obernai - original room had no AC and we were in a heatwave day - room was 33C! Luckily manager moved us to another room with AC, but he told us that not all rooms at Hotel Gouveneur had AC.
Alsace was hillier than expected, & with the heavier bikes we started with on the Alsace trip we often found them difficult to climb, and sometimes even had to just walk our bikes up the hills. The lighter bike Ian was issued in Obernai & the lighter bikes we both had in Burgundy were far easier for hill climbing. Perhaps because of the hills in the Alsace trip it should be rated slightly more difficult.
Ian’s first bike issued in Alsace had 3 issues with it: 1. gears kept shifting on their own, 2. The kickstand kept hitting my shoe (we later learned it was the wrong kickstand for this bike, & 3. the front panier had a big rip in it so I couldnt use it. The bike rental manager (Maxime, Alsace Cycle), did come to meet us in Obernai the next morning when we called and swapped the bike for a much better bike that had no problems at all.
The Guido app we found difficult to work. The audio never worked for us once, it drained our batteries very fast, but we eventually got it to at least tell us where we were if we ever weren't sure just to reconfirm we were either on the right path or needing to get back on the path. So this is how we ultimately used it - only when we felt we needed to be sure where we were. Otherwise we relied mostly on the paper maps and directions. Getting into and out of bigger Cities were the hardest challenges and we often took the wrong turn, but eventually we found our way by checking the app for location identification or just asking locals for directions.If there is a better app out there I would encourage you to consider it as Guido wasn't a great experience.
Ian & Dan
55, rue Saint Jacques
24540 Monpazier
France
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