From Miles to Smiles Stylish travel for professionals seeking luxury at affordable prices
It’s not often I can say that I have booked a three day trip for two in Europe for just over £200 but our spa weekend in Alsace is truly an advert for luxury travel for less in the heart of Europe.
Flying to Basel from Manchester, our plan is to retrace my twenty year old self’s footsteps through quaint medieval villages in Alsace, dip in the thermal baths of Freiburg in Germany, and relax at a spa in the Vosges.
Our luxury spa weekend in Alsace for less
So let’s get the practical stuff out of the way first. Here’s how we managed this trip for just over £100 each.
Flights
We used Skyscanner to search for flights and booked with EasyJet for just £176.40 including one suitcase. Skyscanner is quick and easy to use and compares budget and deluxe airlines alike.
Hotels
As it is my first trip back to Alsace since I was a student here over twenty years ago, I wanted to enjoy it in luxury. I was looking for four or five spa type properties when researching potential hotels.
These are surprisingly easy to find for a reasonable price in this part of Europe, but if you are signed up to Hotels.com‘s hotel rewards programme, you can use their hotel comparison tool to compare prices AND earn free nights. As you will see, we bagged ourselves some real bargains.
Friday night – Hotel Club Airport, Basel: France
We arrived late so an hotel 4km from the airport was ideal. This hotel is super cool and has a swimming pool for an early morning dip. We paid just £11.01 having redeemed one free hotels.com voucher (beware many places in Europe apply taxes separately and these must be paid directly to the hotel.)
This hotel is so new it gleams. Hallways are adorned with intriguing portraits of young and old from around the world, there’s a funky bar serving cocktails and snacks, and a rather fabulous swimming pool. This hotel is a mega bargain even without the voucher, but hurry as it has only recently opened and prices may well rise as it becomes more established.
How nice is that pool? Unfortunately, I only bloody well slept in and didn’t get the chance to use it which is a real shame as it was empty! Nothing better than a pool to yourself.
Saturday night – Dorint an Den Thermen Freiburg
I was planning a night in my old stomping ground of Colmar but happened to stumble upon the Dorint an den Thermen Spa hotel in the border town of Freiburg, Germany. This hotel looks too good to be true, nestled in the heart of a forest on the outskirts of Freiburg, with a fabulous thermal spa, jets galore and modern rooms with balconies. Applying another voucher of £89.42, left us just £8.63 to pay.
BEWARE: We were disappointed to discover that entry to the Thermal Baths is not included in the room rate and costs an additional €20 each for use of all the facilities. This is not made clear on the Hotels.com website but having raised this with Hotels.com they immediately issued an apology and a £15 credit towards our next stay. Customer service indeed!
That said, the hotel really is gorgeous surrounded as it is by woodland and with big picture windows allowing you to truly bring the forest indoors. The decor is very boutique style with a fabulous chillout room complete with log fire to warm you.
Surprisingly, the bar menu is somewhat limited, and not especially healthy, which is bizarre considering this hotel markets itself as a health and rehabilitation centre.
I would still recommend it but forwarned is forearmed!
Sunday night – Les Violettes Hotel and Spa, France
A short drive away, over the border in France, is the little hamlet of Jungholz in the foothills of the Vosges. You would be forgiven for mistakenly believing you were in Austria with onion dome churches the focal point of every village lining the roadsides.
It’s just a short drive to some of the prettiest towns on the ‘Route du Vin’ in Alsace. In less than thirty minutes you can be in Colmar, Eguisheim or Turckheim where you can indulge in wine tastings, hikes to imposing cliff side castles or simply enjoy a coffee at one of the many cafe squares overlooking postcard perfect vistas. We chose Les Violettes Hotel and Spa costing just £10.60 after redeeming a voucher for £106.
This hotel is a real treasure, nestled in the lower Vosges overlooking a miniature lake and picturesque church. By night we experienced moody, cloudy skies and torrential rain with refreshing droplets creating decorations on the windows. By day, glorious sunshine greeted us as we raced off to the spa to laze in the salt room (said to cleanse the respiratory system), the Finnish sauna, lanconium, and aromatherapy rooms.
A fabulous atrium connects the indoor pool to the outdoor pool via a waterside gateway and manicured lawns and flower beds decorate the gardens. I could almost feel the stress oozing out of my shoulders as I enjoyed scents of rose and incense wafting through the spa.
The service is absolutely fabulous and if you are lucky you may be treated to an impromptu tasting session of the ‘Eaux de Vie’ of the region. These are schnapps style drinks in a variety of flavours so don’t get too carried away as you may regret it!
The lowdown for our hotels
The table below shows the exact payments for each property including the value of the hotel vouchers we redeemed.
| Hotel | Cost | Voucher redeemed | Outstanding payment including taxes | Local Taxes |
| Airport Club Hotel | £77.39 | £74.04 | £11.09 | €2.21 |
| Dorint an Den Thermen | £91.63 | £89.42 | £8.63 | €6.25 |
| Les Violettes Hotel et Spa | £106 | £106 | £10.60 | €4.24 |
| Total | £275.02 | £269.46 | £30.32 | €12.70 |
The total price for hotels was £30.32 bringing the cost for our entire trip to £206.72. Our loyalty to Hotels.com has paid off to the tune of £269.46. What a result!
What’s more we aren’t restricted to specific hotel chains and earn one night free in every ten. Who could want more from an hotel search engine facility that rewards you with free rooms?
How is that for three nights, three countries and just £206.73 for flights and hotels? The standards at each of the hotels were fabulous giving us a luxury spa weekend in Alsace for a bargain!
Have your say?
Maybe you have visited this region and have your own personal favourite spa hotels, or maybe you have some top travel tips for things to do in Alsace. We would love to hear from you so feel free to drop us a line or comment in the box below.
Pin this to remind you of the beauty of Alsace:
How do you get these hotels.com vouchers? I’m a member of their rewards programme where I get one free night when I’ve stayed 10, but I’ve never seen any mention of vouchers…
HI Kiara, you normally get them if you complete the feedback request after staying. They send you a voucher for 10% off your next booking.
Yes I think I got one of those however you saved more than 10% on your hotel bookings -the first one you mention you got £74 off a £79 booking. How did you do that?
Ah that is by using my one free night voucher towards the cost of the booking. When I first started using them, I mistakenly thought the cost of the free night had to be less than or equal to the cost of my voucher when in fact you can use it towards the cost of a room which is more expensive. I have just done the same thing for a trip to Bahrain this week where I have redeemed a voucher of £122 against a hotel room of £146.
Ah I see! OK that’s starting to make sense 🙂 You obviously use hotels.com a lot, it’s taken me ages to accrue a free stay!
Did you hire a car of use taxis to drive between the hotels? What was the cost of this?
We paid around £120 to hire a car for three days. You can also use trains in Alsace. For instance a return from Basel to Freiburg is around €19 each or from Basel to Colmar is £11.50 per person. The only thing to be wary of is that if you want to get into the tiny villages along the Route du Vin you will need a car as buses are infrequent. Or you could hire a bike which is low cost and the land is flat. That’s how I used to get around when I lived there as I couldn’t drive at the time.
Thanks Anne, that’s helpful
You are welcome. Let me know if you decide to go as I would love to hear what you think. You can also check out more about our fairytale trip on the gorgeous TravelCandy where I wrote a guest post. Here’s the link if you are interested.
http://www.travelcandy.co.uk/a-wine-roadtrip-weekend-in-alsace/
Looks amazing!!!!!!!! I need to find a spa someplace nearby and have a relaxing weekend too! 😉
A spa break is always a great way to chill. If you are in the UK I highly recommend the Eden Day spas for great value, gorgeous location and fab food.