Colmar City Guide
The fairy tale village in Alsace that actually lives up to the photos, and how to do it with your family.
Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel
Is Colmar worth visiting with kids?
Absolutely. The town is small, walkable, flat and full of things that catch kids' attention without needing a single theme park. The canals, the storks, the market, the Statue of Liberty connection, and the fairy tale houses are more than enough for a day or two.
How many days should we spend in Colmar?
One full day covers the town. Two days lets you add a wine road village like Eguisheim or Riquewihr. Three is ideal if you want Strasbourg as a day trip. Most families do two nights and feel like they saw everything without rushing.
When is the best time to visit Colmar?
Late spring and early fall are the sweet spot for weather and manageable crowds. April through June and September are beautiful. December is magical for the Christmas markets but very busy, so book early. July and August are warm and crowded with summer tourists.
Is Colmar easy to get to from Paris?
Yes. The TGV from Paris Gare de l'Est takes about two and a half hours with one change in Strasbourg. Direct trains run some days. It is one of the easiest day trips or overnights you can add to a Paris based France itinerary.
Do we need a car in Colmar?
Not for the town itself. Everything is walkable. A car helps if you want to explore the Alsace wine road villages at your own pace, but you can also reach Eguisheim and Riquewihr by local bus or taxi.
The Alsace Town That Looks Like A Storybook
Colmar is the town that people think they have photoshopped until they walk into it. Half timbered houses in pastels. Window boxes overflowing with geraniums. Canals running through the old quarter with wooden boats and bridges. It looks like a Disney set that somebody forgot to disassemble, except it is real, it is a thousand years old, and the bakeries are better than anything a theme park ever dreamed up.
This is Alsace, the strip of France that sits right against the German border and has spent centuries bouncing between the two. The food is French technique with German portions. The wine is crisp Riesling and Gewürztraminer served in green stemmed glasses. The architecture is a mix you will not see anywhere else on earth. And the whole thing is compact enough to walk in a morning, which makes it perfect for families who do not want to spend their vacation in a car.
Getting There & Getting Around
Colmar is small and walkable. You do not need a car in town, and the train station puts you in the center in five minutes on foot. The only time a car helps is if you want to do the Alsace wine road villages on your own schedule.
Three Neighborhoods Worth Booking
Little Venice (Petite Venise)
The postcard part of town along the Lauch canal. You wake up to half timbered reflections in the water and walk to breakfast. The prettiest base, and it fills up fast, especially in December.
Old Town Center
Around the Unterlinden Museum and the Collegiate Church. Central to everything, close to the covered market, and the widest range of restaurants within a five minute walk.
Near the Train Station
Practical if you are doing day trips along the wine road or hopping to Strasbourg. Five minutes on foot to the old town, and the hotels here tend to be newer and a bit less expensive.
La Maison des Têtes
A sixteenth century landmark building with a Michelin starred restaurant downstairs. The rooms look out over the old town, and the building itself is one of the most photographed in Colmar.
Hôtel Le Colombier
A converted Renaissance house right on the canal in Little Venice. Family rooms, a courtyard, and the location is unbeatable for morning walks before the crowds arrive.
Hôtel & Spa & Restaurant Au Koïfhus
Clean, well located, well priced, and right in the old town near the Koïfhus. No frills but the rooms are comfortable and breakfast is solid Alsatian.
What To See In Colmar
Petite Venise (Little Venice)
The canal quarter with painted fisherman houses dating back to the medieval era. Walk along the quai de la Poissonnerie, cross the little bridges, and take a flat bottom boat ride if the kids are up for it. Early morning before the tour groups is the move.
Unterlinden Museum
Built around a thirteenth century Dominican convent, and home to the Isenheim Altarpiece, one of the most important paintings in Europe. Even if art museums are not your thing, the building itself and the medieval collection are worth an hour.
Maison des Têtes
A seventeenth century merchant house covered in over a hundred sculpted heads and faces. It is bizarre and wonderful and the kids will spend ten minutes counting the faces in the facade. Now a hotel and restaurant, but the outside is the show.
Collegiate Church of Saint Martin
The big Gothic church in the center with a roof of multicolored glazed tiles that catches the light. Free to enter, and the stained glass is genuinely beautiful. Look up at the rooftop for stork nests in spring and summer.
Marché Couvert (Covered Market)
The iron and glass market hall on the canal where locals actually shop. Cheese, charcuterie, fresh pretzels, pastries, flowers. Open mornings, and the best place to assemble a picnic lunch for the park.
Koïfhus (Old Customs House)
The oldest public building in Colmar, right in the center where the merchants traded goods between France and Germany. The ground floor hosts events and markets, and the square around it is the heart of the old town.
Bartholdi Museum
The birthplace of Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor who designed the Statue of Liberty. The museum is his childhood home, full of models, sketches and a replica of Lady Liberty’s ear. Kids love making the connection between this tiny Alsatian town and New York Harbor.
The Storks
Colmar is stork country. White storks nest on rooftops, chimneys and church spires across town from March through August. Kids will spot them everywhere. The Parc de l’Orangerie in Strasbourg has a stork reintroduction center if you want to see them up close on a day trip.
Family Time In Colmar
Colmar is one of those places that works for kids without a single dedicated kids’ attraction. The town is small enough that nobody gets tired. The canals, the boats, the storks on the rooftops, the market full of pastries and pretzels, and the connection to the Statue of Liberty all land with kids in a way that bigger cities sometimes do not.
Counting faces on the Maison des Têtes
Pretzels from the covered market
Stork spotting from the bridges
Bartholdi Museum and the Statue of Liberty story
PARK & DOWNTIME PICK
The Parc du Champ de Mars, a shaded green space right at the edge of the old town with a playground, benches and enough room to run. The perfect midday reset between the morning sights and an afternoon ice cream walk.
Five Things To Eat In Colmar
Nicole’s Perspective
A fairy tale that is actually real
Colmar is the kind of town I send families to when they tell me they want something that feels magical but not touristy. And I know how that sounds, because the photos make it look like it could not possibly be a real place. But it is. People live here. They buy their bread at the boulangerie and walk their kids to school past five hundred year old houses, and the whole thing works.
What I love about planning Colmar into a France trip is how easily it fits. A night or two in Colmar gives families a completely different side of France than Paris or Provence. The Alsatian food, the German influence, the wine villages twenty minutes away. It rounds out a trip in a way that another big city cannot. And in December, the Christmas markets here are some of the best in all of Europe. Not the biggest, but the most beautiful.
Day Trips From Colmar
Eguisheim
A circular medieval village ten minutes from Colmar and regularly voted France’s favorite village. Walk the concentric streets, stop for a wine tasting at a family domaine, and be back in time for dinner. Possibly the single most photogenic village in France.
Riquewihr
Another wine road gem, slightly bigger than Eguisheim with a wider main street and more shops. The Dolder Tower gives you a view over the vineyards and the Vosges mountains. Twenty minutes from Colmar by car.
Strasbourg
A thirty minute train ride north gives you the Alsatian capital, with the massive Gothic cathedral, the Petite France quarter, and the European Parliament buildings. Easy to do as a day trip, and the TER trains run every half hour.
Things I Would Tell A Friend Before They Booked
How Many Days Do You Need
One full day covers the town itself. Two lets you breathe and add a wine road village. Three is the sweet spot if you want to explore the region properly.
Little Venice in the morning, the Unterlinden Museum, lunch at the covered market, an afternoon wandering the old town and the Bartholdi Museum.
Day one in Colmar itself, day two driving the wine road to Eguisheim and Riquewihr with a wine tasting and a vineyard lunch.
Add a third day for a train ride to Strasbourg. The cathedral, Petite France, and tarte flambée for lunch, back to Colmar for dinner.
Colmar, Answered
Is Colmar worth visiting with kids?
Absolutely. The town is small, walkable, flat and full of things that catch kids’ attention without needing a single theme park. The canals, the storks, the market, the Statue of Liberty connection, and the fairy tale houses are more than enough for a day or two.
How many days should we spend in Colmar?
One full day covers the town. Two days lets you add a wine road village like Eguisheim or Riquewihr. Three is ideal if you want Strasbourg as a day trip. Most families do two nights and feel like they saw everything without rushing.
When is the best time to visit Colmar?
Late spring and early fall are the sweet spot for weather and manageable crowds. April through June and September are beautiful. December is magical for the Christmas markets but very busy, so book early. July and August are warm and crowded with summer tourists.
Is Colmar easy to get to from Paris?
Yes. The TGV from Paris Gare de l’Est takes about two and a half hours with one change in Strasbourg. Direct trains run some days. It is one of the easiest day trips or overnights you can add to a Paris based France itinerary.
Do we need a car in Colmar?
Not for the town itself. Everything is walkable. A car helps if you want to explore the Alsace wine road villages at your own pace, but you can also reach Eguisheim and Riquewihr by local bus or taxi.
Ready To Add Colmar To Your France Trip
Tell me where else you are going in France and how many nights you have, and I will show you where Colmar fits and what wine road villages to add.
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