12 Best Things to Do in Colmar: The Alsace Bucket List
Colmar is small enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes and dense enough to keep you busy for three days. Half-timbered houses in pink, ochre, and mint lean over canals. The Wine Route starts at the edge of town. And the Alsatian-French-German mash-up shows up in everything from the street names to what lands on your plate.
The trouble with a town this photogenic is that it's easy to wander aimlessly, snap a hundred photos, and miss the things that actually make Colmar worth the trip. So here's the short list. Twelve experiences, ranked by how much they'd hurt to skip — with the practical details that turn a nice afternoon into a great one.
1. Drift Through Petite Venise on a Flat-Bottomed Boat
The canals of Petite Venise (Little Venice) are the postcard, and the best way to see them is from water level — much like Annecy's pastel canals farther south in the French Alps. Sweet Narcisse runs short barque rides down the Lauch from the Saint-Pierre bridge — about €8 (around $9) for a 25-minute glide past the old fishmongers' houses. Go early or just before closing. By midday the queue snakes back toward the market, and the boats fill with day-trippers off the Strasbourg train.
2. Stand Face-to-Face With the Isenheim Altarpiece
The Unterlinden Museum holds one of the most jolting works of art in Europe: Matthias Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece, a 16th-century panel painting that's far stranger and more raw than its quiet setting suggests. Entry runs about €13 (roughly $14), the museum is closed Tuesdays, and the early afternoon crowds thin out if you arrive at opening (9am). Give yourself at least 90 minutes — there's a Picasso and a Monet tucked in here too.
3. Eat Your Way Through the Marché Couvert
Colmar's covered market on Rue des Écoles is where locals actually shop, and it's the move for lunch. Grab a slice of tarte flambée, a wedge of Munster, and a glass of Riesling, then take it to the little terrace overlooking the canal out back. Open Tuesday through Saturday (and Sunday in peak season), roughly 8am to 6pm. Cash speeds things up at the smaller stalls.
4. Find the Statue of Liberty's Birthplace
Here's the fact that surprises everyone: Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor who designed the Statue of Liberty, was born in Colmar. The Bartholdi Museum in his childhood home holds models and sketches for the monument, and entry is about €7 ($8). Even if you skip the museum, drive past the 12-meter Liberty replica standing at the northern roundabout into town — built to mark the centenary of his death.
5. Photograph the Maison Pfister and Maison des Têtes
Two houses anchor Colmar's old town. The Maison Pfister (1537), with its wooden gallery and painted facade, is the one on every guidebook cover. A few streets over, the Maison des Têtes (1609) wears 106 carved stone faces and now houses a hotel and a well-regarded restaurant. You don't pay to look — just turn up around golden hour when the low light catches the carvings.
6. Look Up Inside Église Saint-Martin
The Collegiate Church of Saint-Martin dominates the main square, a Gothic pile in pink-gold sandstone that took over a century to build. Step inside (free) for the cool quiet and the stained glass, then come back after dark when the floodlights turn the whole facade amber. The square around it, Place de la Cathédrale, is one of the best spots in town for a coffee and a slow hour of people-watching.
7. Drive — or Cycle — the Alsace Wine Route
Colmar is the unofficial capital of the Route des Vins d'Alsace, the 170-km ribbon of vineyards running south from Marlenheim. You don't need to do all of it. A half-day loop through Eguisheim, Husseren-les-Châteaux, and Turckheim hits storybook villages and a dozen tasting cellars. Most family domaines pour for €5–10 ($6–11), often waived if you buy a bottle — a world away from the formal cellar visits at the grand châteaux of Bordeaux. Skip the big bus-tour operators — rent a car or book a small-group minivan instead.
8. Day-Trip to Eguisheim
If you do one village outside town, make it Eguisheim, a 15-minute drive southwest. Its concentric rings of pastel houses circle a central château, and it routinely lands on lists of France's most beautiful villages. Come on a weekday morning before the coaches arrive, walk the full outer ring (it takes about 30 minutes), and stop at a winstub for a glass of Pinot Gris. There's no entry fee — the village itself is the attraction.
9. Order a Tarte Flambée and a Glass of Gewurztraminer
Alsatian food is its own reward. Order a tarte flambée (flammekueche) — thin dough with crème fraîche, onions, and lardons, baked crisp — and pair it with a glass of off-dry Gewurztraminer. For a sit-down version, Wistub Brenner near Petite Venise does honest regional plates for €18–28 ($20–30) a main. Save room for a slice of kougelhopf, the almond-and-raisin cake shaped like a turban.
10. Wander the Quartier des Tanneurs at Golden Hour
The old Tanners' District is a cluster of tall, narrow houses built high so hides could dry on the top floors — the same vertical, gabled silhouette you'll spot in the canal houses of Bruges. It's quieter than Petite Venise and arguably prettier in the late afternoon, when the timber frames glow and the foot traffic drops off. There's nothing to buy and nothing to book here — just one of Colmar's best 20-minute walks, camera optional but recommended.
11. Hit the Christmas Markets — If You Time It Right
From late November to the end of December, Colmar runs five themed Christmas markets across the old town, and the whole place smells of mulled wine (vin chaud, about €4) and cinnamon. It is genuinely special — and genuinely packed on December weekends. The smart move is a weekday visit, or arriving when the markets open in the late morning before the afternoon crush. Book your hotel months ahead; rooms vanish fast.
12. Rent Bikes and Pedal the Vineyards
Colmar sits flat, and the vineyards start within a few kilometers. Pick up a rental (around €15–20 / $16–22 a day) and ride the marked paths toward Eguisheim or Wettolsheim through the vines. Spring and early autumn are ideal — green rows in May, golden ones in late September during the harvest. Download an offline map before you set off; cell signal gets patchy between villages.
Pro Tip: Stay the Night
Most visitors treat Colmar as a day trip from Strasbourg (a 30-minute train ride away), and that's the mistake. The day-trippers leave by six, and the town empties into something close to magic — lamplit canals, near-silent lanes, and a dinner table that isn't fully booked. Spend one night inside the old town. You'll see a different Colmar than the one in everyone else's photos.
