How many days in Colmar?

The headline things to do in Colmar

From the Colmar guide — these are the items that anchor a 1-day visit. For the full breakdown, read the Colmar travel guide.

1. Petite Venise (Little Venice) — Petite Venise

   The canal district at the southern edge of the old town — converging the Lauch river's small canals, with brightly-painted half-timbered houses leaning over the water, geraniums in window boxes, and the iconic boat-tour photograph everyone takes from the Pont Saint-Pierre. The flat-bottomed barques (small boats, 30-minute trip €7 from Pont Saint-Pierre dock, 10:00–18:30 April–October) are the canonical Colmar experience. Walk the canalside path from the Pont Saint-Pierre to the Quai de la Poissonnerie for the longest stretch of the photogenic waterway.

2. Unterlinden Museum & Isenheim Altarpiece — Unterlinden / city centre

   The 13th-century Dominican convent now housing one of France's great regional museums — and the home of Matthias Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece (1515), the centrepiece of Northern Renaissance painting. The polyptych's outer panels (the Crucifixion with the diseased body of Christ) and inner panels (the Resurrection, the Annunciation, the Nativity) are displayed in a purpose-built room that allows visitors to see all the configurations of the work as it would have been opened on different feast days. The wider collection includes Renaissance metalwork, alpine archaeology, and a Herzog & de Meuron-designed modern art wing. €13 admission, closed Tuesdays.

3. Maison Pfister & Maison des Têtes — Old Town

   The two iconic Renaissance townhouses of central Colmar — the Maison Pfister (1537, on Rue Mercière) with its painted oriel and octagonal staircase tower, and the Maison des Têtes (1609, on Rue des Têtes) with 105 carved stone heads on its facade. Both are private (now used as hotel/restaurant) but free to view from the street. Cited as inspirations by Miyazaki for Howl's Moving Castle. The Maison des Têtes also houses a Michelin-starred restaurant; the building's carved heads are best photographed in the late-afternoon golden light.

4. Quartier des Tanneurs & Rue des Marchands — Quartier des Tanneurs

   The 14th–17th-century tanners' quarter on the eastern edge of the old town — narrow timbered townhouses that lean out as they rise (the "drying galleries" on the upper floors were used to dry tanned hides) along the Lauch. Today it's the most picturesque residential street in Colmar. Combine with Rue des Marchands (the Marchand street, the original commercial spine) for a slow 1-hour walk through the densest concentration of intact 16th-century domestic architecture in eastern France.

5. Église Saint-Martin (Cathédrale) — Old Town

   The 13th–14th-century Gothic collegiate church — Colmar's most prominent religious building and the structure visible in the postcard view from the south. Late Gothic facade (the Crucifixion tympanum, originally polychromed), a single-nave interior with rose windows, and a choir lit by stained glass. Free entry, open daily 08:30–18:30. The nearby Place de la Cathédrale has Tuesday/Thursday/Friday morning markets in summer.

6. Marché Couvert (Covered Market) — Petite Venise

   The 19th-century covered market hall in Petite Venise — restored in 2010, with 20 permanent stalls selling Alsatian charcuterie, Munster cheese (the AOC Alsatian wash-rind cheese, exceptional and very pungent), foie gras, mountain trout, kougelhopf bread, and prepared dishes. There is a small cluster of lunch counters and a wine bar at one end. Open Tue–Sat 08:00–18:00, closed Sun/Mon. The cheapest authentic Alsatian lunch in town and an excellent place to assemble a Petite Venise picnic.

7. Musée Bartholdi — Rue des Marchands (Old Town)

   The small, charming museum in the birth house of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty — original maquettes (small models) showing his preparatory studies for the Lady, period photographs of Liberty's construction in Paris and shipment to New York, and Bartholdi's personal effects. €6 admission, closed Tuesdays. Combines neatly with the bronze Liberty replica at the city's northern entrance.

8. Riquewihr & Eguisheim (Day Trip) — Riquewihr & Eguisheim (10 km)

   Two of the most beautiful villages in Alsace — Riquewihr (10 km north of Colmar) and Eguisheim (5 km south-west) are concentrated postcards of half-timbered Alsatian architecture, ringed by vineyards on the slopes above. Both are part of "Plus Beaux Villages de France". Drive or take a regional bus (Riquewihr 15 min, Eguisheim 12 min); allow a half-day for one or a full day for both. Wine tasting in the village cellars (Trimbach, Hugel in Riquewihr; Beyer in Eguisheim) is the headline activity.

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