Alsace

Alsace Bike Trips

On this page, you will find...

If you would like to see a map of our different French routes, it is here.
A link to an overview of all our trips is here.
And, for a comparison of our Alsace route with our other French trips, see here.
Our Trips
Overview Map
of all of our routes

Departure Calendar
of our regular trips
What's Included
in the Trip Cost
Additional Services
you can add to the bike trip.

We love Alsace, home to picture-perfect scenery of infinite variety, and to one of France’s most luscious and elaborate cuisines. For years before we offered the trip, those of us who work at Blue Marble had it as one of our favorite vacation destinations. So, after a marvelous alum ride here in 2003, we added it to our catalogue.

To outsiders, Alsace often seems germanic. Half-timbered architecture, a certain not-very-latin precision in the way things get done, a local language closer to German than to French... all contribute to seeing Alsace as a natural part of the land beyond the Rhine. Indeed, across history this is a case the Germans have often tried to make....

But just as many signs point the other way. A focus on, not to say obsession with, food and wine; a love of art, design, and aesthetics more generally; humanistic and entrepreneurial traditions; and above all, an unquestioned patriotism (“La Marseillaise” was written by an Alsatian).

Highlights include Strasbourg and Colmar, the Route des Vins through the prettiest of the vineyards, the Munster Valley (source of the cheese, not Herman), and the Route des Crêtes, a forest road along the spine of the Vosges mountains. But there are many others, less-known but no less memorable, in this wonderful, surprising and proud corner of France.

The following trips visit Alsace:

Tour de France (3 weeks)
Visits Alsace plus two other French routes

Other Two Week France Trips (2 weeks)
Visits Alsace and one other region in France

Adventures in Alsace follows this itinerary exclusively.
Departure dates and prices are in the table, below.
Adventures in Alsace
2008 Dates
Trip
Prices*
Baggage Services Offered**
(optional)
Difficulty of the Ride
June 28 - July 5
Trip full
$2,075
US or C

1,295€
Half
Moderate
Rolling hills on some parts of the route: Other days are flat, but with longer distances. Extra work abounds, in the form of distance or hills, should you be in the market for a challenge.
August 23 - 30
Daily, Half

* Prices in $ and € do not include precisely the same things. Click here for details, and for prices of optional extras: private single rooms, baggage services, and (in the case of the € price only) bike rental and shipping.

** At least 4 riders must subscribe to a given baggage service for it to operate. The services listed are those currently offered on the departure in question. Services which appear in bold already have at least 3 subscribers (so, one more would ensure their operation). See here for a discussion of our baggage services.



Daily Itinerary: Alsace
Day of the Week
Description
Typical distances, in km
Saturday
 “Access Package” TRAIN to STRASBOURG.
Strasbourg has an airport, but without meaningful international service. The Access Package includes tickets from Basel, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Zurich, or Paris, served in just over 2 hours by a new TGV line, opened in 2007. For a small additional cost, they are available from Geneva, Brussels or Munich.

Trip Meeting, Strasbourg.
BLACK and WHITE VILLAGES of PROTESTANT ALSACE.
The trip assembles in Strasbourg at midday on Saturday. Change into your bike togs at the station for an afternoon bike ride amongst the characteristic black-and-white villages of the lands to the north. Hunspach is our favorite, and a must-see (work it in tomorrow if you can’t get there today).

If you have just landed, and the idea of doing anything but crawling into bed is revolting, you can train directly to our night's destination, Wissembourg, on the German border.

Evening welcome dinner in a local tavern. Curiously, Wissembourg was long the home of the King of Poland. Today it is home to a salt warehouse that looks remarkably like the Hogwarts sorting hat from Harry Potter.

“Half” Baggage
25 - 40 optional k
Sunday
 The “MAGIC SQUARE” of the LOWER RHINE.
Go for a spin in the hills along the German border. The 12th century ruined Château de Fleckenstein is a pretty destination: rooms carved out of rock, views of the surrounding valleys, and a goofy name. Charming small towns abound: Lembach, Niederschlettenbach, Burt Bacherbach.... and beautiful hiking is on offer in the forest around the castle.

Back to Wissembourg, where the sorting hat will tell you what route you have to do tomorrow.

“Half” Baggage
40 - 60 k, often hilly
Monday
 The PIEDMONT of the VOSGES.
Today we set out along the foot of the mountain range that separates Alsace from the rest of France. Skirt the hills you played in yesterday, following country lanes through sleepy farm towns, far from the urban centers that define the region to most visitors. Short, middle and long route options let you head into Strasbourg when the city lights beckon more strongly than the sleepy farms.

The long route finishes on the tow path of the Saverne-to-Strasbourg canal. Burn some kilometers on a Leclerc-like dash into the city, following the general’s WWII path out of the hills.
40 - 110 k
Tuesday
 CANALS and SAUERKRAUT.
A morning to explore the capital. Admire the cathedral, wander along the Petite France’s canals, leave town when you’re ready.

Today’s route takes us through fields of cabbage, and to the northern end of the Route des Vins, or Wine Road. The direct route is only 25 k of flat riding, but if you are looking for more, head up the Bruche valley into the Vosges, for different scenery and a different level of effort.

Molsheim was home to the Bugatti auto maker, now a manufacturer of aircraft landing gear. It is a pleasant town, with a butcher’s guild as its centerpiece, and surrounded by vineyards.

“Half” Baggage
25 - 60 k
Wednesday
 The ROUTE des VINS.
This is what most non-Alsatians know of Alsace. It is, indeed, a source of pride.

We give today over to riding, passing through the northern vineyards, at the foot of the Vosges hills, which protect the grapes. Michelin poetically describes Obernai as “infused with a golden glow and surrounded by vineyards,” but it is also infused with tour buses. The villages further south are less overrun, and bustle with viticultural activity: Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé, Kaysersberg (birthplace of Albert Schweitzer)....

A full day of riding, and one of those special ones that reaffirms your faith in your metal horse. 2 nights in one of the wine villages around Colmar.
60 k
Thursday
 COLMAR and the MUNSTER VALLEY.
Use a loop day to visit Colmar, another aesthetic treat. Walk amongst canals and medieval alleyways, and join in the festivities at one of the local taverns.

Colmar has many ways to hold your interest, but the most curious is that it is the birthplace of Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor (and driving force) of New York’s Statue of Liberty. A small museum commemorates his works, and others grace the town.... It also offers a museum of toy trains, but unless they have toy cyclists stuffing 14 toy bikes into toy baggage cars, we aren’t interested.

Or head up the beautiful Munster valley. Munster is one of France’s greatest cheeses (and one of only a few from Alsace). The town of the same name is also a favorite of the local storks. A pretty cycle route follows the valley from top to bottom... for a short ride, train up, bike back. 30 k of easy scenery, and allows you to combine with a visit of Colmar.
20 - 90 k
Friday
 The ROUTE des CRÊTES or more ROUTE des VINS.
Two options exist to get to Thann, our destination for the night: you can go either over or around the Vosges mountains. Colmar is at sea level, the peak of our “hill route” at circa 1,300 m / 4,000 ft... so there is some real effort involved in option 1.

But it may be worth it. The Route des Crêtes runs along the spine of the mountains that separate Alsace from the rest of France. It was built by in the First World War, to allow communication between French troops stationed in the different valleys. It’s path is perfect for a beautiful bike ride, once you have taken on the climb to reach it: it traces a line from ballon to ballon (the rounded summits characteristic of the Vosges), approaching the crown of each. The views are stupendous, fermes-aubèrges (farm inns) pop up to refresh, and when you tire of the whole business, you can drop into the Thur valley for a pleasant ride through 19th century industrial villages (how did they get charming, all of a sudden?), to our night stop in Thann.

Not up for the mountain goat routine? Go around! Rejoin the Route des Vins for the trip on south. More harvest scenes, more wine villages, more trouble getting the handlebars to point in the right direction.

Guebwiller is the theoretical highlight, though we have faith in you to find your own. On St. Valentine’s day, 1445, a woman named Brigitte Schick, hanging out on the ramparts for reasons that are none of your business, scared off an entire army by screaming a lot. This is the source of the modern English word “shriek.” We made that last part up.

Our final night is in Thann, where the Christmas tree (“tannenbaum”) was invented. We did not make that up, though Scandinavians dispute the story.

“Half” Baggage
60 - 90 k
Saturday
 CONNECTION DAY.
A morning bike ride to the Mulhouse railway station, from whence on to your next project. Our pod disaggregates at noon, though those catching a same-day flight can catch an early train directly from Thann, and skip the ride (in general, a Sunday flight will be a more comfortable solution...).

The “Access Package” offers trains from Mulhouse to Zurich, Frankfurt, Geneva, Luxembourg or Paris. Tickets to Brussels, Munich or Milan are available for a small additional cost.

Guests continuing to connecting trips (Switzerland, the Loire Valley, Tuscany or Burgundy) depart Mulhouse at midday.
20 k