If you choose us to travel in Alsace and its surroundings, there is a high chance you meet Ana: read the portrait of one of our best guide in Alsace.
Discover the Alsace region with us through our 100% customizable itineraries:
Today, let’s meet Ana, one of our best guide in Alsace! After 28 years of experience in large international companies she decided to focus on her passion: wine, gastronomy and terroir, meet people, discover and travel. Passionate about Alsace and loving to share, it becomes obvious to her, to create her company with her husband and make visitors discover the pearls of Alsace.
Passionate about Alsace and loving to share with others, we decided together with Eric to create our own company in 2018. our aim is to show the gems of the Alsace, off the beaten track places, and meet the locals (e.g. winemakers or farmers). We had and still have lots of fun in preparing our tours and lovely anecdotes. We always look to include as much as possible but running the tours without any rush! The most important for us is the satisfaction of our guest, that they do not feel like “touristy touring”. We are so grateful as we meet wonderful people coming from all over the world and willing to share with us some moments in Alsace.
Well, first we assure the security of all, the guest and us, by disinfecting the minivans in addition to the normal cleaning we did already after each tour. We provide hand sanitizer gel at the start of the tour, and whenever needed during the tour. We respect the distancing whenever it is possible; in the van and in public places mask are mandatory, for us and the travelers.
In accordance with our guest we avoid crowded places, even if we must say, even touristy places are more or less deserted. It is sad to say, but actually it’s the best moment to travel and have some normally crowded places for your own…
Can I name a few? It’s really hard to say, because each town is a special one! They are all different and interesting. Honestly speaking my favorite is to be on the wine road and getting into peaceful places like Murbach: in the middle of nowhere in a small town of only 100 inhabitants sits an Abbey, build in 727 with an incredible history!
There are a few ones, but it depends on the interest of the traveler. Most of the time people do not know how “rich” the Alsace is in terms of sightseeing, history, monuments, gastronomy, and wines! Most of our US guest for example are saying they would love to spend more time in Alsace! They are sad when they have booked just 2 days in Alsace.
Alsace is not only the wine road and the fairy tale towns known like Riquewihr, Eguisheim, Kaysersberg… There are so many other medieval towns less known, but as beautiful as those ones. We have the Ridge road on the Vosges (mountain chain in Alsace) with stunning views and if you are lucky you can see or hear some chamois, this is something nature lovers.
Besides the knowledge of the area, a tour guide must be kind and be able to adapt himself to the guest and specific situations. If you are passionate, the guest will feel it and will even more appreciate the day, small things can make the happiness of someone! I will never forget the words of one of our guests. It was quiet at the start of our company, we had a Japanese couple that booked a full day tour with us, a classic shared tour. During the day they asked us if we could make a stop at Ferber (very known for the fruit jam and pastries; they had seen on TV!), as they were alone we did it of course, and seeing their interest we have completely changed the program and switched to other towns, less none but we were sur those guest would appreciate. By the end of the day the Sir said: Ana and Eric you made me and my wife happy!
Thanks for this unforgettable day! And really you could see their happiness, and this was so wonderful! Some of our guests are following us on Facebook and Instagram, and sometimes we are getting some messages, just for having some news. Isn’t it wonderful? This is why we are doing this job!
I am a fan of the Alsatian dishes, in winter, my favorites are Baeckeoffe, choucroute and Fleischschnacke. Those are typically dishes I’m making at home when friends of us are coming from abroad (by the way, one of our guest an American Lady leaving in Germany, has bought the pot for the Baeckeoffe and tried my recipe and sent us a pic saying: she got it!).
In summer, I prefer the “tartes flambées” or even the “tourte de la vallée” (meet pie).
Oh, there are so many memorable tours for us! If I can quote more than one… completely different but emotionally strong: there is for example a VIP Tour we organized for a Birthday Surprise, John the husband contacted us to organize something for 8 people, 4 adults and 4 children. Together with him we organized a memorable day where the parents and the kids had fun: during the wine cellar visit and wine tasting the kids were painting; and in the Monkey mountain both got excited while feeding the monkeys. Vanessa was happy because she had a nice day without thinking about how to manage the kids.
Another is the day spent with 6 Thai ladies, they were laughing all the day over, we had so many fun, even is they did not speak very well English, we were speaking with hands and feet as we use to say. During Christmas time, when we are ending by singing together Christmas songs in the different languages of the guest.
Well we do prefer to be off the beaten path, so the Noble Valley, or even the Land of Barr are genuinely nice places to be shared.
But when people are coming to Alsace they want to see the known Gems, so our Full day ICONICS Tour is a great tour giving a very nice overview of the Alsace including fairy tale towns, known and non-touristy towns, breathtaking views on the sweeping vineyards, the Haut Koenigsbourg medieval castle; and of course the visit of a family owned wine cellar and tasting of the delicious Alsace wines lead by the winemaker himself or his wife or son/ daughter. Important to point out also, is that we are exclusively working with small family owned winemakers that makes the wine tasting experience even greater!
If you ever travel with us, you might encounter Ana for one or many of your tours, once again, one of our best guide in Alsace. Do not hesitate to contact us or check our sample itineraries 100% customizable directly on our website.
If you enjoyed this portrait of one of our best guide in Alsace, check out one of other portrait: Meet Julie, a specialist of the Rhône Valley.
