Alsace, France and Luzern, Switzerland
In October, we took a quick weekend trip to the Alsace region of France. Alsace is known for their wines, and once you get there its vineyards as far as the eye can see! What's also nice about Alsace is that it is right on the border of Germany and Switzerland, so you could easily hit up all three countries in a weekend!
We flew on EasyJet from Schipol to Basel (literally on the border of France and Switzerland) for a ridiculously low fare, rented a car there from the airport and off we drove into France. While a tiny car is not necessary as you can take main roads to the different towns, once you are in the towns the smaller the car the easier it is going to be. If you are up for the drive, it is only 6 1/2 hours from The Hague, driving through Belgium and Luxembourg along the way.
First we drove an hour and forty minutes up to Soufflenheim to check out all of the Alsatian pottery shops. It is a small town with all of the shops right around each other. We had lunch in one of the only restaurants in town, full of french speaking locals, and had great Alsatian food which consists of French food with a German twist, and vice versa.
After this we drove down the wine route with really lovely views and stopped in Colmar where we would spend the night at the Hotel Saint Martin (http://www.hotel-saint-martin.com/en/). It is right in the center of the old section of town, however you will have to park your car a couple of blocks over. It is an older hotel with the typical German facade matching the rest of the town; some might call the room 'cozy' or 'quaint'. I don't think you will find any big chain hotels in these towns, and that is part of their charm. Colmar itself was a bigger town than I expected, though the touristy older section is not that large, and is walkable with lots of shops, bakeries and restaurants.
We drove on the next day along the wine route and stopped in Eguisheim, and this was our absolute favorite stop of the weekend. It is a much smaller town than Colmar, very typical German architecture (yes, you are in France), and surrounded by vineyards along the edge of the Vosges Mountains. Absolutely stunning. We did see a couple of hotels in the town, so it is possible to stay overnight here. Many of the wineries in the regions have shops in Eguisheim where you could pop in for tastings. There are a couple of self park car lots in town, costing around 2 euros for the day. If you are looking for shopping or nightlife, there were far fewer options in this town, if at all, so you would be better off in Colmar. If you are looking for photo opportunities, then this is your place!
After this we returned our car to the airport, which was now only a 40 minute ride, hopped on the bus to the train station and took a train to Lucerne. It was an hour train ride and about 30 swiss francs. When we travel to a country that does not use Euros, we always just go to the ATM in the airport when we arrive for some local currency. Just about everywhere here accepts credit cards. You could also easily stay in Basel and sightsee, or take a train to Zurich, also about an hour ride.
We stayed at the Renaissance Lucerne (www.marriott.com), a really lovely hotel, a short walk from the train station and all of the sights. Luzern is an easily walkable town, no rental car is needed, and would be expensive to park.
