If you are thinking of taking a trip to Alsace and the Black Forest at Christmas, my recommendation is to DO IT. Alsace at Christmas is a fairytale destination!
It is a trip that everyone should do once in a lifetime. Every village you visit will make you feel like you are in a real Christmas fairytale. It is a magical place in December.
But well, I’m done trying to convince you. If you’ve come this far, it’s because you’re itching to discover this French region and you want to see if the budget fits into your plans.
How much does it cost to travel to Alsace and the Black Forest for 13 days?
My trip was a little different to what most people do if they travel to Alsace, unless you are doing a road trip to Alsace and the Black Forest. It lasted two weeks, where I travelled through the Alsace region, the Black Forest, and had time to explore Basel and a nearby Christmas market.
As a general rule, people usually travel four or five days to Alsace so that they have plenty of time to see the villages and markets at their leisure.
As your trip will probably be shorter, I’ll average the cost of everything so you can see how much everything costs.
✈ Flights
The best way to find cheap flights is to use Skyscanner. You’ll be able to check which are the cheapest dates to travel and plan your trip based on them, if you have availability.
I travelled from 8 December to 20 December. I chose those dates to avoid the crowded weekend, combined with the public holiday we celebrate in Spain. Besides, I would have enough time to enjoy the little villages of Alsace during the week.
To get to Alsace, you can land at different airports (Baden-Baden, Strasbourg and EuroAirport). The latter is the most frequent and the one I flew into.
Flight price: 152,55€.
*Price for 2 passengers with 23kg checked baggage.
Price per person: €76.3
🚗 Car rental
Renting a car is the best way to get around Alsace. We booked it through Rentalcars, the best car rental comparison website.
In my case, the rental car belonged to Goldcar. Being under €25, the price was €296 for 10 days. However, if you have more than €25, the price of the car is €130 for 10 days.
We only booked it for 10 days because we were going to be in Basel for the last two days and we could move around by train. It is 10 days, not 11, because we picked it up on the 8th around 5-6pm and delivered it on the morning of the 18th.
Price of the car rental: 296€
* Price for 10 days and for driver under 25 years old.
Car rental price +25 years: 130€.
*Price for 10 days
Average price per day: 13€
🛌 Accommodation
This is the most difficult part of any trip, selecting accommodation.
My advice is to book as soon as possible. If you know you want to make a trip to Alsace at Christmas, or at any other time of the year, book well in advance.
I say Christmas because it is the most typical time to travel to Alsace.
In my case, I have to admit that the route I chose was not the best way to see Alsace and the Black Forest. Since we ONLY stayed in Alsace 🤦. Well, and in Basel the first and last night.
These are all the accommodations of the trip 👇
- AIRBNB Bauwagen (Basel): Our accommodation is no longer available on Airbnb. It was a sort of roulotte in the middle of nowhere, with nice views.
- AIRBNB Chambre/studio PRIMEVERES Chez TONY (Ammerschwihr): This was our accommodation for the next five nights. It had a small kitchen and off-street parking. And it cost us 285,36€ for five nights.
- AIRBNB Charming Room in Strasbourg (Strasbourg): We spent two nights here. The flat is in a great location, but I don’t think I would stay here again, to be honest. It cost 153,70€ for two nights.
- AIRBNB Le Silice Zen ❤️❤️ (Mulhouse): We spent another two nights here. The flat is great, very nice and well equipped. It was also close to the Christmas market. Although I found the neighbourhood itself a bit weird. It cost us 155,00€ for two nights.
- HOTEL Hôtel et Spa La Villa K (Saint-Louis): This was not the hotel we had booked, but ours was overbooked and we were diverted here. We stayed two nights for 174€. The hotel is tiny, but it’s great. It has an airport shuttle and is a 15 minute walk from the train station – I would come back here again if I went to Alsace!
It should be noted that we booked the accommodation at short notice. Only a month or a little more in advance. If it was any other time of the year there would surely be a lot more accommodation available, but with it being the middle of Christmas?
🍴 Meals
As it was the Christmas market season, we ate many of our meals during the trip at the markets themselves. We also had breakfast at the airbnb almost every day, and even had dinner at other times.
Although I have to admit that I got a bit carried away on the trip… 🤭
To give you an idea, every day we had toast, pancakes with chocolate, milk and juice or an English Breakfast. Yes, all very healthy… But we had to refuel before launching them on the adventure.
Dinner was usually something quick to prepare, like sandwiches, pasta, pizza or some meat. Actually, we only ate at the airbnb for a couple of days because, as I said, the markets were our main source of food.
In general, the average price of a menu in a restaurant is around 15-20€. And in the street markets you can eat for less than 10€. So you can expect to spend around €30-40 a day on food per person at most.
I don’t think we spent more than €50 a day on food between the two of us.
💰 Total budget for the trip to Alsace
The trip to Alsace and the Black Forest cost us per person approximately 1,060€ for a 13-day trip.
Breakdown per person: 384€ (accommodation) + 40€ (petrol) + 148€ (rental car) + 76€ (flight) + 350€ (food) + 60€ miscellaneous (buses, trains, parking)
I don’t remember exactly how much money we spent on petrol because I didn’t write it all down, but from what I have written down I would say about 80€.
If you make a trip to Alsace for 4-5 days, and you are over 25 years old, it probably won’t cost you more than 300€ (not counting the flight).