Paris to Strasbourg by private car — Alsace, door to door

Strasbourg is 490 kilometres east of Paris. The TGV covers it in one hour forty-six and, centre to centre for one or two people, that is the right answer and we will say so. The private car is for the journeys the TGV does not solve: groups, luggage, Christmas-market weekends when the fares triple, and above all the fact that everything worth seeing in Alsace is outside Strasbourg.

Colmar is thirty-five minutes south. Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé, Eguisheim and Kaysersberg — the villages that put Alsace on every postcard — have no railway at all. Once you are in the region a car is the only way to move between them, which is why most of our Alsace bookings are a one-way transfer plus days of local driving at the far end.

Distance

490 km

Drive time

4 h 45 each way

Day length

One way, or overnight

From

€1,860

Why it is usually a one-way booking

Nine and a half hours of driving in a day, for a city you could reach by train in under two, is not a sensible trip and we would rather tell you that. What works is a one-way transfer out — with a stop in Reims, Verdun or Nancy on the way, all of which sit on the route — two or three nights in Alsace, and either the TGV home or a return transfer.

The other pattern is a group already in Alsace who needs to move: Strasbourg to CDG for a flight, or Colmar to Basel airport, both of which we run.

The wine route villages

Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé, Eguisheim, Kaysersberg and Hunawihr sit in a seventy-kilometre band between Strasbourg and Mulhouse, each of them ten to twenty minutes from the next. There is no train and the bus network is designed for residents. A car with a driver turns the whole route into a comfortable day; without one it is a logistical problem.

The wines are almost all white — Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, Sylvaner — and the cellars along the route are far more open to walk-in visitors than Burgundy’s.

Christmas markets

Strasbourg’s Christkindelsmärik has run since 1570 and is the reason the city is full from the last weekend of November to Christmas Eve. Colmar, Riquewihr, Kaysersberg and Eguisheim all hold their own, and the small-village ones are considerably better than the Strasbourg crowds suggest.

This is also when the trains and hotels are at their most expensive and the car parks at their most impossible. A private driver who drops you at the edge of the pedestrian zone and collects you from the same place at ten at night is worth more in December than in any other month. Book early: the first three weekends of December are the busiest of our year.

What makes this journey different

• Strasbourg cathedral, La Petite France and the European quarter
• Colmar and Little Venice, 35 minutes south
• The Route des Vins: Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé, Eguisheim, Kaysersberg
• Christmas markets from late November to Christmas Eve
• Also runs to Baden-Baden, the Black Forest and Basel from the same corridor

How the day runs

1. 07:00Pick-up in Paris

   Your hotel, apartment or CDG airport.

2. 08:45Optional stop in Reims

   The cathedral, or a Champagne house if the timing allows.

3. 11:30Optional stop in Verdun or Nancy

   The battlefield memorial, or Place Stanislas.

4. 13:00Strasbourg

   Cathedral, La Petite France and your hotel.

5. Next daysColmar and the wine route

   Quoted separately as local days with the same driver.

What the price includes

• The whole vehicle, not a seat: four people pay what one person pays.
• All motorway tolls and fuel, on both legs of the journey.
• Your driver’s waiting time at every stop, with no meter running.
• Parking charges at the sites you visit.
• Baby, child and booster seats, fitted free on request.
• Flight tracking and free waiting time if your plane lands late.
• Bottled water, phone chargers and Wi-Fi on board.
• A written invoice, issued by a licensed French VTC operator.

Frequently asked questions

Other journeys out of Paris