Irresistible Alsace small group tour, exclusively in English
4days/3nights, Strasbourg/Strasbourg
2020 Depart daily: year round
Cost from: 3* $1210 per person in twin share (single supplement on request)
Cost from: 4* $1715 per person in twin share (single supplement on request)
day 1 Strasbourg-Arrival
Met at Strasbourg Airport or Train Station and private transfer to your centrally located hotel. Remainder of the day is at leisure to explore your surrounds.
day 2 Flammekueche Workshop & Half day Wine Tour
Breakfast at your hotel.
11.00am Meet directly at the restaurant
Give Making Flammekueche a Go
Learn the secrets of making traditional Alsatian “tarte flambée” during a 45-minute baking workshop with an expert chef. This is a hands-on cookery lesson in a local “winstub” with group size limited to eight people. Finish the class by eating your own freshly baked flammekueche and wash it down with a glass of wine! It makes for the perfect self-made, local lunch.
After arriving at the local activity provider’s location, enjoy your flammekueche cooking lesson just before lunch. The price includes the cooking class; then you get to eat 1/2 a traditional flammekueche and 1/4 of a traditional sweet flammekueche. A drink is also included: 25cl beer (must be 18+), 1 soft drink or a small bottle of mineral water, or 1 glass of Alsace white wine.
A Wonderful Snapshot of Alsace Wines
2.00pm Pick up in front of Post Office facing Train Station
Depart for a half day tour along the Alsace wine route to discover some of the most fascinating wines of France. Renowned for its aromatic white wines, the region is ideally suited with a dry and sunny climate, complex geology, favorable soils and excellent exposure. During this half day tour, you will wine taste in 2 wineries so as to find out all there is to know about the 7 different types of Alsace wines. First, depart for the lovely town of Obernai located on the ‘Wine Route’. Here you will most certainly appreciate its little winding streets, old houses with multicolored tiles, ensigns, ramparts and the statue of St Odile patron saint of Alsace. After a guided walking tour of the town enjoy your first wine tasting session in one of our selected wineries. Your tour will then continue along the breathtaking Alsace wine route to admire the stunning landscape. On your way, enjoy a second wine tasting session in a typical Alsace ‘caveau’.
6.00pm return to Strasbourg and night at your hotel.
day 3 Pearls of Alsace
Breakfast at your hotel.
9.00am Pick up in front of Tourism Office of Strasbourg on Cathedral Square
Beautiful Towns, villages and Amazing Landscapes – What a Combination!
Pick up in Strasbourg and depart for the beautiful town of Colmar. Discover the charm of the old town, its prestigious monuments, the Pfister house, the Koïfhus, Saint Martin collegiate church, and the picturesque neighbourhoods of small Venice or of the tanners. Then depart for the most beautiful village of Eguisheim. Surrounded by vineyards, the narrow and concentric streets highlight the architectural merits of its half-timbered houses, lovingly decorated with flowers. After a walk in the village your tour then continues on to the beautiful town of Riquewihr. Surrounded by ramparts, the village has been very fortunate to survive war and destruction. Its tiny streets, fortified walls and old houses have preserved their 16C splendour virtually intact, making for remarkable architectural harmony. Free time for personal discovery and lunch.
Enjoy the Spectacular Alsace ‘Wine Route’
Located between the Rhine valley and the Vosges mountain range, the 60-year-old route winds across the slopes for more than 170km. The itinerary leads across rows of undulating, vine covered hills, and through quaint villages with narrow streets and charming flower decked houses clustered around the local church steeple. Your guide will stop in several areas for great photo opportunities.
End the day Touring an Amazing Castle
Finally, we reach the mighty Haut Koenigsbourg Castle. Here, follow your guide for a tour of this mighty fortress that overlooks the valley. Built in 12C, the Castle occupied a strategic position controlling the wine and wheat routes to the North and the salt route that came from the East. Evening return to Strasbourg.
Traditional Dinner at a Local Restaurant
Tonight, enjoy a fabulous regional dinner in one of the most traditional restaurants of Strasbourg, known as a Winstub: The Winstub, literally “wine lounge”, recreates the Alsatian way of life. Originally, it was a room open to the public where wine growers could sell off the surplus of their production. Nowadays, the Winstub is a typical Alsatian restaurant, where the wine is served in carafe accompanied by traditional dishes such as Choucroute (or Sauerkraut), Baeckaoffa – a hotpot of potatoes garnished with a selection of meats marinated in white wine, cooked in a terrine dish – and many more. Don’t be surprised to eat shoulder to shoulder on wooden tables, often covered with tablecloths with red check where the usual customers often “try to solve the world’s problems”.
Breakfast will be followed by your transfer to Strasbourg Train Station or Airport.
Inclusions: accommodation in 3* Hotel sharing a double room, arrival/departure transfer, breakfast daily, expert English speaking driver/wine guide on tours, shared gourmet tour, shared half day wine tour, shared full day tour Pearls of Alsace including the castle of Haut Koenigsbourg, 2 course meal dinner in a traditional restaurant in the centre of Strasbourg (drinks not included), travel in recent, comfortable & fully equipped Mercedes Minivan, complimentary bottles of water in the minivan, minimum 2 - maximum 8 participants.
Exclusions: Meals, drinks unless mentioned in programme, personal insurance and expenses, entrance fees to monuments, museums, attractions other than mentioned in the programme, gratuities for the guides, not suitable for children under 18 years of age.