Start at the Unterlinden and give the Isenheim Altarpiece an hour of its own. Then walk south down rue des Marchands, past the Pfister house and Bartholdi’s birthplace, to the Koïfhus, the tanners’ quarter and Little Venice. Eat in a winstub. Two days covers the town on foot; a third buys Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg on the wine route. Come in May or September for the vineyards, in December for the markets.
Colmar is the capital of Alsatian wine and the best-preserved old town in the region: half-timbered fronts in ochre and rose, a canal quarter the locals call Little Venice, and the Isenheim Altarpiece in a former convent. The Route des Vins begins at the edge of town.
A 13th-century Dominican convent holding the Isenheim Altarpiece, Grünewald’s crucifixion panels painted between 1512 and 1516 for a hospital order that treated ergotism. It came off a four-year restoration in 2022. Give it an hour before anything else.
The Lauch runs slow and green past the old fishmongers’ quay, half-timbered fronts leaning over both banks. It is the photograph everybody comes for and it is about 200 metres long. Walk it at first light or once the markets have closed.
A bare Gothic preaching hall, built for the Dominicans across the 13th and 14th centuries with no capitals to interrupt the piers. It holds Schongauer’s Madonna of the Rose Bower, painted in 1473 for Saint-Martin and moved here later.
Finished in 1480 and the oldest public building in town. Every load of goods entering Colmar was weighed and taxed on the ground floor, and the square in front of it is the best place in the old town to sit with a glass of Riesling.
Built in 1537 for a hatter who made his fortune in the Val de Liepvre, and the first Renaissance house in Colmar: a two-storey corner oriel, a wooden gallery, an octagonal turret and painted panels across the facade. Private inside.
Auguste Bartholdi was born in this house in 1834, and it now holds his studio models, drawings and the working casts for the Statue of Liberty and the Lion of Belfort. The rooms downstairs show how a wealthy Colmar merchant family lived.
Colmar’s largest church, Gothic, begun in the 13th century in yellow sandstone. Schongauer painted his Madonna for it. Colmar has never had a bishop, so it is a collegiate church rather than a cathedral, whatever the square outside is called.
A brick and cast-iron market hall of 1865, put up on the bank of the Lauch so growers could unload straight off their flat-bottomed boats. Around twenty stalls still trade inside: charcuterie, Munster, bretzels and Alsace wine by the glass.
Tall narrow houses pressed shoulder to shoulder, built high because the tanners dried their hides in open lofts under the roof. The quarter was close to derelict by the 1960s and was restored rather than cleared. Ten minutes on foot, and empty after dark.
Twenty-five minutes on the Lauch, through the Petite Venise and along the Quai de la Poissonnerie, in the flat-bottomed barque the market gardeners used until the 1950s. Sweet Narcisse runs it from the foot of the Pont Saint-Pierre.
Alsatian natural history and an Egyptian room, in a quiet street near the Petite Venise.
Terrace on the water in the Petite Venise, and the choucroute the town is measured against.
S’Parisser Stewwele in Alsatian: a local room on Place Jeanne d’Arc, off the tourist axis.
Named for the sculptor, a short walk from his museum, and reliably full at lunch.
One star, in a 15th-century building, Loïc Lefebvre cooking modern plates off traditional roots.
The gastronomic table inside the Maison des Têtes, under the 111 carved heads of 1609.
A working family cellar in an old farmyard, five minutes from the Koïfhus.
Turckheim, six kilometres out, run by the first Frenchman to pass the Master of Wine.
Under the Schlossberg at Kientzheim, the granite hill made Alsace’s first grand cru in 1975.
The largest, over 60 chalets of crafts, under the wall of the Dominican church.
Around 50 chalets spread over both banks of the Lauch beside the Koïfhus.
The children’s market in the Petite Venise: rides, a small farmyard and a postbox for Santa.
Artisans under the 1480 roof, and the place to warm up when the rain sets in.
Food and mulled wine, and the one site that stays open into the first days of January.
Tall drying lofts, restored rather than cleared, quiet the moment the groups turn back.
The old market gardeners’ quarter over the Lauch, low houses and vegetable plots.
The merchant spine: the Pfister house, Bartholdi’s birthplace, the Maison des Têtes one street over.
A walled village at the mouth of the Munster valley, with a night watchman still on his round in season.
Albert Schweitzer’s birthplace under a ruined keep, and a strong Christmas market of its own.
Walled, intact and the busiest village on the route. Come at opening or come in February.
Three ruined castles above the vines, and the Pfifferdaj minstrels’ festival in September.
The rebuilt castle on its ridge at about 750 metres, with the Rhine plain laid out below.
The children’s cavalcade on 28 February 2026, the main parade through the old town the next afternoon.
The city’s spring market, run through the old town between late March and early April.
Twenty-two classical concerts over ten days, 5 to 14 July 2026, across four venues.
The 77th edition, 31 July to 9 August 2026: 350 exhibitors and a concert bill on the open-air stage.
Marathon and half marathon over the weekend of 19 and 20 September 2026, out through the vineyards.
Beer, sauerkraut and brass at the Parc des Expositions on 16 and 17 October 2026.
The 90th book fair, 21 and 22 November 2026, over 200 stands at the Parc des Expositions.
Six markets across the old town, 23 November to 29 December 2026, the gourmet one running into January.
EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg is the nearest, roughly 65 km south. Take the shuttle to Basel SBB, then a direct TER into Colmar in about 40 minutes. Strasbourg is the alternative.
Colmar station is a ten-minute walk north of the old town. TER trains reach Strasbourg in about 30 minutes, and TGV INOUI runs direct from Paris Gare de l’Est in around 2h50.
Seven urban lines, €1.50 a single ticket, payable by card on board. You will not need them inside the old town; line D is the one that reaches the Parc des Expositions.
Everything in this guide but the villages sits inside a kilometre, and the centre is largely pedestrian. For the Route des Vins, take a car or the seasonal shuttle between the villages.
Bread dough rolled thin, spread with fromage blanc, onion and lardons, fired fast.
Pork, beef and mutton marinated in white wine, then baked with potatoes in a sealed clay pot.
Sauerkraut cooked slowly in Riesling under smoked pork, sausage and knuckle.
Beef and noodle dough rolled into a spiral, sliced and browned. Rarely seen outside Alsace.
Chicken braised in Alsace Riesling with cream and mushrooms, served over spätzle.
The washed-rind cheese from the Vosges valleys west of town. Order it with cumin seeds.
Yeasted almond and raisin cake baked in a fluted earthenware mould. Breakfast, not dessert.
Zewelewaï: an onion and cream tart taken as a starter, usually with a glass of Sylvaner.
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