Strasbourg, France Plus Colmar and Central Alsace

Updated August 2025 A delightful mid-sized city on the French and German border. This Starting-Point Guide covers Strasbourg and several nearby towns, villages, and castles around the Alsace area. A guide for travelers who wish to use one city such as Strasbourg as their base camp to travel the area and not move from town to town as they travel through Europe. You will find numerous graphs, maps, and photographs to help orient you to this historic area. Guidance on how to get around town and an orientation to the most popular sites is included. This guide focuses on Strasbourg but also covers notable sites including Colmar, France, and Freiburg, Germany to the south, and Baden-Baden, Germany to the east. This is not a complete guide to the Alsace region. Such a guide would go beyond the suggested scope of staying in one town and having enjoyable day trips from there.