Strasbourg travel guide

Plan your trip, step by step

• Where to stay
  Choose island or just-off-island, and hotel vs apartment.
• Things to do
  Decide which tours, boats and day trips to reserve.
• Strasbourg in 3 days
  Follow a plan built around the split museum closing days.
• Estimate your trip cost
  See what a Strasbourg trip costs in euros at your style.
• First-timer mistakes to avoid
  Sidestep the timing and ticketing errors that waste a day here.
• Strasbourg on a budget
  See what a lean, comfortable or generous day really costs.

The neighborhoods at a glance

Grande Île

Known for the UNESCO-listed island core — the cathedral and its astronomical clock, Place Kléber, Place Gutenberg, the Palais Rohan museums and most of the winstubs, all inside a pedestrianised kilometre.

Petite France

Known for the western tip of the same island — timber-framed tanners' houses over the canal locks, the Ponts Couverts towers and the free rooftop terrace on the Barrage Vauban.

Neustadt

Known for the monumental German imperial quarter laid out after 1871 — Place de la République, wide Wilhelmine boulevards and the Palais du Rhin, added to the UNESCO inscription alongside the Grande Île in 2017.

Krutenau

Known for the student and nightlife quarter just across the Ill from the island — university faculties, cheap eats, bars that stay open when the old town has gone quiet.

Quartier de la Gare

Known for the streets around the glass-shelled Gare de Strasbourg — the cheapest beds in the city, and the fastest departure point for Colmar, the wine route or Paris.

Quartier Européen & Orangerie

Known for the European Parliament, Council of Europe and European Court of Human Rights, with the Parc de l'Orangerie beside them — leafy, institutional, and reached by tram E.

Deciding where to base yourself? The where-to-stay guide turns these areas into a lodging decision.

When to go — month by month

Average daytime high (bars) and rainy days per month, from 5-year climate normals. Greener months are the most comfortable to visit.

Best months to visit: Apr–Sep

Destinations with a similar climate

Like Strasbourg’s weather? These places have the closest year-round climate in our data — tap through for each one’s best time to visit.

• Basel →
• Geneva →
• Paris →
• Cologne →
• Brussels →
• Prague →

Know before you go

Currency

Euro (€). Cards and contactless work almost everywhere, including on the trams. Carry a few coins for bakeries, market stalls and Christmas-market vin chaud deposits.

Language

French, with Alsatian — a Germanic dialect — still on the street signs: most central streets are named twice, in French above and Alsatian below. German and English are widely understood given the border and the EU institutions.

From the airport

Strasbourg-Entzheim (SXB) connects to the Gare Centrale by a shuttle train that takes 8 minutes and runs up to five times an hour. A combined ticket is €4.60 and includes 24 hours of onward tram, bus and local TER travel; the train alone is €3.20. Strasbourg is also a major TGV stop, and arriving by train from Paris is usually faster door-to-door than flying.

Getting around

You will walk far more than you ride — the Grande Île is pedestrianised and about a kilometre across. CTS trams (lines A to F) converge at Homme de Fer; a single is €1.90 on a Badgéo card, the CTS app or contactless, €2.50 if you buy it on board a bus. A 24H SOLO pass is €4.60, a 24H TRIO covering up to three people is €10.20, and a 72H SOLO is also €10.20. Vélhop bike hire runs €7 for 24 hours against a €200 deposit.

Crossing into Germany

Tram D runs over the Rhine to Kehl, in Germany, in about fifteen minutes from the city centre, with no border formalities. You do not need a cross-border ticket: line D as far as Kehl sits inside the ordinary CTS fare zone, so a €1.90 single or a €4.60 24H pass already covers it. The €11 Europass 24H only earns its keep if you are carrying on into the wider Ortenau district by German bus or train — and it is sold as a family ticket, for one adult plus two children.

The two dates that change the price

The Christmas markets (roughly 26 November to 24 December) are the single biggest driver of hotel prices here. The second, which catches most visitors out, is the European Parliament's twelve plenary sessions a year — about four days each, when the institutions absorb a large share of the city's rooms.

For the best months to visit and a day-by-day plan, see Strasbourg in 3 days.