What to pack for the Alsace Wine Road
Five days, hotel to hotel, 146 km. You're never more than an hour from a village, so pack for comfort, not survival.
Papers & money
- Passport — US riders need no visa for France, but check yours doesn't expire within 6 months of your return
- One credit card plus some euros in cash — small wineries and bakeries still prefer it
- Travel insurance details, and your EHIC/GHIC card if you're European
- Booking confirmations saved offline — village hotel Wi-Fi is honest about its limits
- Hotels & apartments: Booked apartments instead of hotels? Confirm check-in windows when you book — village hosts aren't hotel receptions, and you'll arrive by bike at an imprecise hour. Ask about bike storage in the same message.
The bike, if renting
- Your own saddle if you're particular — rental shops will swap it on
- Your own helmet. Rental helmets exist; you don't want them
- Pedals and shoes if you ride clipped in
The bike, if bringing yours
- Whatever your airline's bike-box rules demand, checked twice
- Multi-tool, spare tube, mini-pump, tire levers
- A decent lock — you'll leave the bike outside wineries and cafés daily
On the bike, every day
- Two bottles — refill at village fountains and taps marked eau potable
- Sunscreen and lip balm; the vineyard rows offer zero shade
- Rain shell within reach, not buried — Vosges weather changes mid-afternoon
- Phone mount or handlebar bag for the route page
- Small first-aid kit: plasters, ibuprofen, chamois cream if you use it
Clothing for five days
- 2–3 riding kits, rinse and rotate — hotel radiators dry a jersey overnight
- Hotels & apartments: If your place has a washing machine, you can drop to two riding kits
- Layers over heavy pieces: mornings at 12°C, afternoons at 28°C in the same day
- Riding in May or October: add a fleece or light insulated layer, full-finger gloves, and something for your ears — vineyard mornings can start near 5°C
- A buff or neck tube — weighs nothing, covers half the cold cases
- One proper going-out outfit: a collared shirt or a dress that packs small — Colmar and Strasbourg evenings are worth dressing for, and the Michelin table doubly so
- A light sweater or jacket for outdoor terraces — vineyard villages cool off fast after sunset
- Comfortable walking shoes: cobbles in Riquewihr, castle stairs at Haut-Kœnigsbourg
- Swimsuit if your hotels have pools — check the lodging cards
Tech
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- Charger and one EU plug adapter (type C/E) — one adapter, not four
- Power bank; on-ride mode and photos will eat a battery by Thann
- eSIM installed before you fly — Yesim covers France and activates in minutes, so navigation works from the airport curb
- Garmin or bike-computer cable if you ride with one
Wine logistics — the section you'll thank us for
- Soft padded bottle sleeves (two-bottle size) if you want to carry as you go
- Or don't carry at all: most wineries on the route ship internationally — ask at the first tasting, not the last
- Check your airline's checked-bag alcohol allowance before promising anyone Gewurztraminer
- Hotels & apartments: An apartment kitchen turns the markets from browsing into dinner — one more argument for the small knife
Camping the Wine Road — what changes
The campgrounds marked on the route are mostly municipal sites: cheap, clean, close to the villages. Two things to know before the gear list: most are open roughly April to early October — check before a shoulder-season trip — and receptions close early, often by 19:00–20:00. Plan your day to arrive before the office does. And don't improvise: wild camping is restricted in France, and every tempting vineyard row is someone's livelihood.
Sleep
- Lightweight tent — you'll pitch and strike it five times, so practice once at home
- Sleeping bag comfortable to about 5°C for May or October, lighter for high summer
- Sleeping pad, and clothes you only sleep in — dry sleepwear is morale
- Earplugs: campgrounds have church bells too
Carrying it — this changes your bike
- A rear rack and panniers or a bikepacking setup; the hotel-tour daypack won't do
- If you're renting, tell the shop you're camping — ask for the touring bike with rack mounts, not the carbon one
- Weight discipline: day 5 is 53 km with 550 m of climbing, and every kilo rides up the Vieil Armand detour with you
Cooking — genuinely optional here
- Honest advice: this is Alsace. Bakeries at breakfast, markets at noon, winstubs at night. Many riders should skip the kitchen entirely
- If you cook: one canister stove, one pot, a spork, a lighter — and buy the gas canister in France (they can't fly, checked or carried; a Decathlon in Strasbourg or Colmar solves it on day zero)
- A small knife and a cloth turn any market into lunch
Camp life
- Headlamp
- Quick-dry towel — showers are good, towels are yours to bring
- Camp sandals, clothesline and a few pegs, and a travel-size soap that can wash you, your dishes, and a jersey
- A bigger power bank than the hotel crowd carries — outlets exist at receptions, not at your pitch. Charge phone and lights over dinner in town
Money & timing
- More cash than the hotel version: smaller sites and shower tokens sometimes want coins
- Book ahead only in July–August; otherwise municipal sites almost always have tent room
The wine problem, camping edition
- Panniers full of camping gear don't have room for six bottles. Shipping from the winery stops being a luxury and becomes the plan — ask at the first tasting
Leave at home
- Hotels & apartments: Camping gear — this is a bed-and-bakery route
- Laptop — anything it could do here, your phone does
- Camping: The second pair of off-bike shoes, and anything cotton
Forgot something?
Good news: France has shops. Every town on this route has a pharmacy, most have a sports store nearby, and Colmar has everything. The only things you truly can't buy on arrival are your saddle and your paperwork.