The search is on in Alsace

What better thing to do on Valentine's Day than think about a trip to the romantic region of Alsace? We'll be spending about five days in the Alsace region of France along with Jana's parents in July. This post is about finding a place for us to stay - away from the crowds, with convenience, and surrounded by beauty. The first question is related to location.

City or Village?

City? Colmar is Beautiful!

My first decision is whether to stay in a city or village. I started thinking this through by specifically searching discussion boards on TripAdvisor and Fodor's for discussions of Strasbourg, Colmar, and several of the villages. I'm also searching for discussions containing "best base for Alsace" and related terms. This will give me plenty of fodder for decision-making.

(A quick searching tip that most of you probably already know: in google put your search term - in quotes for the most specificity - followed by site:tripadvisor.com or whatever site you want to specifically search. This avoids some of the extraneous material that might otherwise show up in searches. I usually start general but then drill down into some of my favorite sites.)

I like searching specifically for discussion boards because I find information from non-professional travelers very useful, particularly if seeking something a bit off the beaten path. It's just amazing what our fellow travelers are able and willing to share through some of the more or less crowd-sourced sites. See here and here for a couple very useful discussions that I capitalized on here. And also see GetAlsaced.com. Very helpful information there.

I'm quickly learning from reading about others' experiences that we are not going to go too far wrong no matter where we decided to stay. Strasbourg is beautiful, has a wonderful and compact historic core, and has much to see. Colmar feels even smaller than it is and is pretty as a postcard. There are dozens of great villages that vary in their level of touristy-ness and are all charming and beautiful. So, right there, some of the stress level of the decision process is reduced. We'll see whether my experience once we're there aligns with what I gleaned from other reports.

After sorting through the information, I've decided to stay in a village. This seems to be the best choice to maximize the likelihood of an authentic experience in the Alsace region. Some of the most famous villages are Riquewihr and Ribeauville. Both too touristy for my taste. Some other options include Kaysersberg, Eguisheim, Obernai, Hunawihr, and Bergheim. I focused on these because they are centrally located and would provide a base that would not tie our hands too much once there. To choose between these villages it's to discussion board searches, but also conducting google image searches for each village and searching for services like restaurants in each town. (You can do this by identifying an area in google maps and then typing restaurant into the search box.) I want to make sure we would not have to get in the car every night for dinner and instead be able to walk to dinner (and maybe even to wine tastings!) and avoid the inconvenience of loading the Little Lady into the car so often.

Village? Eguisheim is Where We'll Be

The winner is Eguisheim. We think this village will be beautiful, convenient, and a great base for Alsace because it is close to all the most famous villages, has about as many wine producers as any village in the region, has plenty of services, but is not reported to be over-run with tourists even during the high season when we'll be there.

Next time, finding a specific place to stay.