Who writes it, how it is made, and why it exists
Written from Illkirch, not from a press trip
This site is written and edited by Olivier Boos. I was born in Alsace and I live in Illkirch, a few minutes south of Strasbourg.
That matters less because of any special expertise and more because of proximity. The Wine Route is about thirty minutes from my door. Colmar is forty. The Vosges are an hour away. I do my shopping here, I take visiting friends around, and every year I answer the same questions: where to park in Colmar in December, which village is bearable on an August Sunday, whether the train really works instead of a car.
Those conversations are the reason this site exists.
Learn more about me and my connection to Alsace →
On this page
- What this guide is trying to do
- Why an English-language guide
- How the pages are written
- How the site was built, including AI
- Affiliate links and how the site is funded
- Corrections and updates
- Contact
What this guide is trying to do
The aim is straightforward: to be the most complete and most current English-language guide to Alsace.
Not just Strasbourg and Colmar. Also the 119 villages of the Wine Route, the ruined castles above the vineyards, the Vosges valleys, the flower-covered villages of the Kochersberg, the Christmas markets that tourists have heard of and the ones they have not, the winstubs, the crémant producers, the Sunday closures nobody warns you about.
And to do it without pretending that every single place is unmissable. Some places are worth a detour. Some are worth an hour. Some are worth skipping when you only have three days. Saying so is more useful than adding another entry to a list of « hidden gems ».
Why an English-language guide
I already run a French-language guide to Alsace. Building an English version was not originally the plan.
It became the plan after reading what English-speaking visitors actually find when they search for Alsace. Most of it falls into two categories: the same eight villages photographed from the same angle, or long articles written by someone who spent two days here in 2019. Practical details are thin. Public transport is usually dismissed in half a sentence. Opening seasons, Sunday and Monday closures, the difference between a village in May and the same village in mid-December: mostly absent.
Anglophone visitors often have harder logistics than French ones. You may arrive by plane into Basel or Frankfurt, you may not drive on the right, you may not speak enough French to phone a domaine and ask whether the cellar is open. Those constraints change the advice. This site is written with them in mind rather than translated around them.
This is not a translation of my French site. The structure is different, the itineraries assume different arrival points, and the advice reflects what English-speaking readers ask me, which is not what French readers ask me.
How the pages are written
One editor. Every page on this site goes through me. There is no rotating team of freelancers and no guest contributors.
Three inputs. Each page is built from my own visits, from official sources (tourist offices, town halls, transport operators, wine estates, site managers), and from AI-assisted drafting and structuring, explained in the next section.
A visible line between fact and opinion. When a page contains a personal judgement, a piece of on-the-ground advice or a warning that comes from my own experience, it appears in a box called « A local’s view », signed and dated with my last visit. Everything else is documentary synthesis: checked information, written in the editorial voice of the site.
This split is deliberate. On any page, you can see which part is lived experience and which part is verified compilation. If the box is missing, that page has not been through my personal review yet, and I would rather tell you than hide it.
What I will not do. I will not claim to have eaten somewhere I have not eaten. I will not describe a hotel room I have never seen. When I have not checked something myself, the page says so.
How this site is made, including AI
One person cannot write a complete regional guide from a blank page. So this site did not start from a blank page. Its initial structure and a large part of its first drafts were produced with AI assistance. I would rather state that plainly than let you work it out.
What the AI is used for:
- Covering a much wider range of subjects than I could draft alone: towns, villages, walks, restaurants, winstubs, accommodation areas, seasonal markets
- Producing first drafts and page structures that are consistent and easy to read
- Handling repetitive updating work faster, such as timetables, prices and seasonal dates
What the AI never does:
- Decide a recommendation. Which village is worth your afternoon, which market is worth the crowds, whether Strasbourg or Colmar suits your trip: those are my calls
- Publish anything unreviewed. No page goes live without me reading it line by line
- Write the « A local’s view » boxes. Those are mine, entirely, and dated
Where the work stands. I am rewriting the site page by page: checking travel times, opening hours, prices, bus routes and closing days, and replacing generic phrasing with what I actually know. Pages that have been through that process carry a signed and dated « A local’s view ». Where it is missing, the rewrite is still pending.
Being transparent about this is not a legal formality. You are making decisions about money and holiday time based on what you read here, so you are entitled to know how it was produced.
If you spot something wrong or out of date, tell me. That is genuinely the fastest way this site improves.
Affiliate links and how the site is funded
The site is free to read and there is no paywall. It is funded through affiliate links: if you book a hotel, a tour or a rail ticket through certain links here, the partner pays me a small commission.
You pay exactly the same price. There is no surcharge and no difference to your booking.
Partners include Booking.com, GetYourGuide, Viator, Amazon and a number of travel-specialist platforms.
My commitments:
- I only recommend places, activities and products I would suggest to a friend arriving in Strasbourg next week, commission or no commission
- When I have not tried something personally, I say so rather than implying otherwise
- A commission does not improve a recommendation, and it does not move anything up a list
- Pages containing affiliate links carry a clear notice near the top
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Corrections and updates
Travel information ages badly. Restaurants close. A shuttle bus is cut. A cellar changes its tasting fee. A market moves its dates by a week.
Every page carries a last updated date. If you find an error, send it to olivier@i-visit-alsace.com and I will correct the page and refresh the date.
Reader corrections are the most useful messages I get. Please send them, even for small details. Especially for small details, in fact, because those are the ones that ruin an afternoon.
Contact
Question, suggestion, correction, or a partnership proposal?
I usually reply within 48 to 72 hours. Messages in English or French are both fine.