Where to stay in Strasbourg: the Grande Île, Petite France, Krutenau and the Neustadt

Overview

Strasbourg is a border city that has changed hands between France and Germany several times, and it shows in the street plan: a medieval island of half-timbered houses around a pink sandstone cathedral, and right beside it a grand imperial quarter laid out when the city was German after 1871. Both are UNESCO-listed. It is also one of the seats of the European institutions, which gives a provincial-sized city a diplomatic layer and, for a few days most months, a hotel shortage. The center is small and flat, the trams are good and it has one of the best cycling networks in France, so you do not need a car at all. The honest caveats: it is crowded and expensive in December, gray and damp for much of the winter, and most of what a visitor comes for is in the old center, the Neustadt and the institutional quarter.

Where to stay

The heart of the city is the Grande Île, an island enclosed by the river Ill and a canal, the Fossé du Faux-Rempart. The cathedral, Place Kléber, Place Gutenberg and Petite France are all on it, and you can cross it on foot in about twenty minutes. Most visitors should sleep on the island or within a short walk of it; the areas below are ordered from the middle outwards. Two calendar effects override everything else: during the Christmas market and during the European Parliament’s plenary sessions, rooms across the city become scarce and expensive, so check your dates against both before choosing an area; the Parliament publishes its calendar of sessions a year ahead.

Around the cathedral

The eastern half of the Grande Île, between Place de la Cathédrale, Place Gutenberg and the quays of the Ill: narrow lanes, the Kammerzell house, the Palais Rohan and its museums, and the boat landing for river tours. Stay here for a first visit or a short stay where you want everything at the door. The trade-off is crowds and price: this is where the tour groups converge by day, and in Advent the main market squares are right outside, with crowds late into the evening and security checks on the way onto the island.

Petite France

The old tanners’ and millers’ quarter at the western tip of the island, where the Ill splits into channels: timber-framed houses over the water, the Ponts Couverts with their towers, and the Barrage Vauban, a covered dam with a roof terrace looking back over the whole scene. It is the postcard Strasbourg and genuinely beautiful early and late in the day. Stay here if the view from the window is the point of the trip. The trade-off is tourist saturation: the eating is aimed at visitors, the lanes are cobbled and busy, and there is little ordinary city life around you.

Krutenau

Across the Ill to the southeast, the old boatmen’s district is now the student and nightlife quarter, around Rue de Zurich and Place de Zurich, a short walk from the university campus at the Esplanade. It has bars, cheaper places to eat and a younger crowd, and it is still five to ten minutes on foot from the cathedral. Stay here if you want to be where people actually go out, or on a tighter budget. The trade-off is noise on weekend nights and a scruffier feel than the island.

The Neustadt

North and east of the island, the German imperial city: broad avenues, Place de la République with the Palais du Rhin, the university’s main buildings, and handsome residential streets running out towards the Parc de l’Orangerie. Stay here if you want calm, space and a grand setting while remaining walkable to the center. The trade-off is that it is residential and quiet at night; you will walk back onto the island for most of your evenings.

Station quarter

West of the island, around the main station with its glass shell. It is the practical base for an early train, for day trips along the wine route, or for arriving late from the airport, and rooms are usually cheaper than on the island, which is a ten- to fifteen-minute walk away. The trade-off is charm and a few rougher blocks around the station itself after dark; the streets get more pleasant as you cross towards Petite France.

European Quarter and the Orangerie

Northeast, around the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the Court of Human Rights, beside the Orangerie, the city’s best park. The hotels here are largely built for delegations and conferences, and they suit business travelers or anyone wanting a quiet, green base. The trade-off is distance and atmosphere: the old center is a tram ride away, the area is dead at night, and prices here move most sharply in plenary weeks.

Kehl, the German town across the Rhine and reached by tram, sometimes comes up as a cheaper fallback when Strasbourg is full. It works, but you are commuting into the city for every meal and every sight, so treat it as that and nothing more.

When to go

Late spring (May–June) and September–October are the best times: mild, dry enough to walk, and the autumn brings the grape harvest on the wine route to the south. Summer can be hot and close in the Rhine plain, and the riverside and Petite France are at their busiest, though the city is less overwhelmed than it is in December. Winter is cold, often foggy and gray, with short days.

The great exception is Advent. The Christmas market, the Christkindelsmärik, runs from late November to Christmas Eve and is one of the oldest in Europe, with stalls spread across several squares of the Grande Île. It is magnificent and it is the busiest the city ever gets: weekend crowds can be shoulder to shoulder, and rooms go months in advance. If you want it, book early and come midweek; if you do not, avoid those weeks entirely, because the whole center is given over to it.

The European Parliament meets in Strasbourg for a few days roughly once a month, outside August. It does not affect sightseeing, but it is the most common reason a visitor finds the city unexpectedly full or expensive on an ordinary weekday.

Getting there & around

By train is the natural way in. The TGV from Paris Gare de l’Est takes under two hours, and the station also has direct high-speed links to other French cities and connections into Germany via Kehl and Offenburg. For many travelers this beats flying.

From Strasbourg airport at Entzheim, a short covered walk from the terminal takes you to the Entzheim-Aéroport station, where a shuttle train reaches the main station in about ten minutes; this is far easier than a taxi. Karlsruhe Baden-Baden airport, across the border, is served by budget flights, but it is an awkward bus or car transfer rather than a simple ride, so factor that in before choosing a cheaper fare. Basel-Mulhouse airport, further south, is another option that needs a train connection.

In town, walk and take the tram. The CTS tram network has six lines, lettered A to F, and they run through the center, out to the European Quarter, the university and the suburbs; one line crosses the Rhine to Kehl. Buy a ticket from the machine at the stop before boarding and validate it. Strasbourg is also one of France’s great cycling cities, with segregated lanes everywhere and a public bike rental program, Vélhop, which makes the Neustadt and the Orangerie easy to reach on two wheels.

Do not drive into the center. The Grande Île is largely pedestrianized and parking is scarce and expensive. If you arrive by car, use the park-and-ride parking lots at the tram termini and ride in.

Day trips run south along the Route des Vins d’Alsace. Colmar is about half an hour by regional train and is the easy one, and Obernai has its own station on a regional line. The other wine villages — Riquewihr, Eguisheim — and the castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg are where a car or an organized tour really helps; without one, they mean a train and then a local bus, slowly, so check the connections for your date before relying on them.

Practicalities

Strasbourg is a safe, easy city. Take the ordinary care around the station late at night and in the Christmas market crowds, where pickpockets work. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, though small market stalls may prefer cash.

Two local quirks catch visitors out. Alsace keeps its own rules on Sunday trading, so most shops are closed on Sundays, more strictly than elsewhere in France; restaurants and the main sights stay open. The exception is the Sundays of Advent, when the shops open for the Christmas market. And the region has two public holidays the rest of France does not, Good Friday and 26 December, when you should expect closures. Lunch is served early by French standards and kitchens in traditional places close between services, so a mid-afternoon meal can be hard to find in the old town.

The cathedral is free to enter; climbing to the viewing platform and watching the astronomical clock’s show (a film at noon, then the procession of the apostles at half past twelve) are both ticketed. Clock tickets are sold at the cathedral on the day, in the morning, with no booking ahead, so buy one early; and read the cathedral’s published times before planning a Sunday or a public holiday around it: on those days there is no film, and the nave opens to visitors only in the afternoon. Many street signs on the island carry the Alsatian name beneath the French one, the Germanic dialect still spoken by older people in the region.

The food is the reason many people come. Eat in a winstub, the wood-panelled Alsatian wine tavern, and order choucroute garnie, sauerkraut cooked in wine and loaded with sausages and pork; baeckeoffe, meat and potatoes slow-baked in a sealed terrine; or tarte flambée (flammekueche), a thin crisp base under cream, onion and bacon, usually shared. Strasbourg also claims foie gras as its own, served cold in slices from a terrine. Munster is the local cheese, kougelhopf the ring-shaped breakfast cake, and at Christmas the bakeries fill with bredele cookies and the markets with mulled wine, which here is often white. Alsace is white-wine country: Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and the sparkling Crémant d’Alsace are what to drink with all of it, and they are good value relative to the rest of France.