Strasbourg
France
Half-timbered houses over canals, a cathedral that was the tallest building on earth for two centuries, and Germany across the river
Photo by Jasmin Börsig on Unsplash
Photos by Paul, Luc Martinato, Patrick Robert Doyle and Lucile Noiriel on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of France
May to September, and December for the markets — the winter is cold and the Christmas weeks fill every bed
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 80mm in May
Where it is
48.58°N, 7.75°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Stand in front of the astronomical clock at solar noon
- Walk La Petite France before breakfast
- Eat tarte flambée until you cannot
- Cycle over the bridge into Germany for lunch
- Drive the wine route through Riquewihr and Eguisheim
Strasbourg travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget France
Mid-rangeCards everywhere, including the bakery. Refuse the conversion when a terminal offers to charge you in your own currency, which is the one way to lose money here.
ATMs & cards
Use a bank machine — Crédit Agricole, BNP, Société Générale, LCL. The independent machines in tourist streets charge and the bank ones do not.
Avoid these
- the machines inside the Christmas market, which charge
Use these instead
- Crédit Mutuel
- BNP Paribas
- Société Générale
The market stalls take cards now, though the mulled wine deposit is often coins.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of France
Reasonably safeSafe by day everywhere a visitor goes, and less so around the station after dark, where the streets between the Gare Centrale and the Grande Île have an open drug scene and the usual pickpockets. The Christmas market weeks bring crowds, bag-snatching and concrete barriers at every entrance. Petite France and the Grande Île are fine into the evening.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the Christmas market crowds — pickpocketing rises sharply and the barriers at the entrances are new
- the station district after dark — the streets between the Gare Centrale and the Grande Île have an open drug scene and the pickpockets that go with it
- the cycle lanes — they are everywhere and pedestrians walking in them is the local complaint
Safe by day everywhere a visitor goes; the station district is the one to cross quickly at night. In the market weeks the old town is full to the point of shuffling and bags want holding in front..
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa France visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of France
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodAlsace eats like nowhere else in France: choucroute, tarte flambée on thin dough from a wood oven, baeckeoffe, and Riesling and Gewürztraminer by the pitcher. A winstub is the local institution and the food is heavy on purpose.
Nightlife
Winstubs and student bars rather than clubs — a city that drinks Riesling at a wooden table and goes home at a reasonable hour.
- Krutenau — the student quarter and the liveliest part of it
- Petite France — the pretty bars, and the tourist prices
- Rue des Frères — a short street of bars behind the cathedral
- the Christmas market — for six weeks a year it is the evening, mulled wine and all
Closing: Bars to 1am or 2am, and the trams stop around half past midnight.
A beer in a bar: €4–6
Getting around
Easy and cheap- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- G7Works here
- FREE NOWWorks here
G7 the taxi fleet, by app
- Against a taxi
- Much the same. The flat airport rate is a taxi rule and the apps price against it.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Paris — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of France
Why these are France's numbers and not Strasbourg's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2.6× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.2× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Strasbourg, so these are medians for all of France. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for France, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
French
- HelloBonjourbon-ZHOOR
- PleaseS'il vous plaîtseel voo PLEH
- Thank youMercimer-SEE
- Yes / NoOui / Nonwee / non
4 more phrases
- Excuse meExcusez-moiex-koo-zay MWA
- How much is it?C'est combien ?say com-BYEN
- The bill, pleaseL'addition, s'il vous plaîtla-dee-SYON
- Cheers!Santé !son-TAY
Open with bonjour before anything else. Launching straight into a question without it reads as rude, and explains a lot of reputed French coldness.
Religion
Catholic, and strictly secular
Laïcité is a constitutional principle: religion is kept out of public institutions, and conspicuous religious symbols are banned in state schools. Cover shoulders in cathedrals.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Say bonjour before anything else, every single time you enter a shop
- Keep your voice down in restaurants and on public transport
- Keep both hands visible on the table while eating, wrists on the edge
- Dress a notch smarter than you would at home — it changes how you are treated
Don't
- Do not ask for a doggy bag or substitutions; the dish arrives as the kitchen intends
- Do not start with English without at least attempting bonjour, parlez-vous anglais
- Do not tip more than rounding up — service is included by law
- Do not eat while walking; it reads as slightly uncivilised
Where to stay in Strasbourg
No Holistay rentals in Strasbourg yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Strasbourg on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Strasbourg SXB
20 minfrom the airport· 10 km as the crow flies
20 min by tram-train.
Also worth pricing: Basel-Mulhouse BSL — 1h30 by road, and better served.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
