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Colmar to Riquewihr Help

We would like to stop in Colmar on our way from Lucerne to Paris. Does the train station have luggage lockers? Also, is there an easy way to get to Riquewihr from there? How much time would we need to get a sampling of both cities? Thanks!

Posted by
26829 posts

When that question was asked 14 months ago, the answer was that there is no official luggage-storage facility in Colmar, and it was suggested that the tourist office be contacted to see if there is an informal arrangement somewhere. I can't improve on that suggestion. The RR station in Colmar is a good walk from the old town, not in an extremely commercial district. I don't remember whether there are any bars and cafes in the area; they are the sorts of businesses that sometimes are happy to watch a bag for a few hours for a modest fee.

There is bus service from Colmar to Riquewihr. It seems to be Bus 106 running between Colmar and Ribeauville. Unfortunately, neither Rome2Rio.com nor Google is getting me to a full schedule. It's looking like a short ride, but a very gappy schedule rather than one with buses evenly spaced throughout the day. However, the distance is less than 8 miles, so taking a taxi would not be terribly expensive. If you could manage to take a bus in one direction, I'd consider it a very reasonable side-trip.

The historic center of Riquewihr is quite small. I hate dragging a suitcase behind me (and wearing a backpack would be worse), but as small as the town is, it might not be impossible to manage a visit with your luggage. If the first thing you did upon reaching Riquewihr was stop to get something to eat, you might find the café willing to keep your bags for you (as long as it was going to be open when you returned to retrieve them). I haven't been to Riquewihr in a very long time, but take a look at the map I've linked to. The closely-packed red roofs are the historic center. Now check out the map key. It looks to me as if the perimeter isn't much more than half a mile (part of which may not be so scenic--can't tell), then you'd have the interior streets to wander. I'd guess the whole historic area could be covered in 1-1/2 to 2 hours, including some photography but not stopping to eat. That's just my guess. I don't know whether there are sights you might want to enter (an old church, some sort of wine-related thing?); those would be extra.

Colmar is a horse of a different color. It's substantially larger--perhaps 1/2 mile from N to S and 1/3 mile from E to W. It's most of the area within the area circumscribed by the rue du Nord, rue de l'Est, rue Schwendi, boulevard St-Pierre, boulevard Le Clerc, boulevard Champs de Mars, Manege, rue Kleber, rue des Unterlinden and rue Golbery. Colmar is drop-dead gorgeous (and lots of tourists know it), and it has a really fine museum, the Unterlinden, that is not tiny. It holds an acknowledged masterpiece, the Isenheim Altarpiece. I'm sure I spent at least 2 hours in the museum alone. So Colmar is worth the better part of a day, to me, if not more than a day. But I'm sort of obsessed and make a point of walking every street inside the historic district.

The two places are in no way equivalent in size or time needed to view.

Edited to add: I should have mentioned that Sunday/holiday bus schedules can be very problematic or even non-existent. Be careful with your scheduling.

Posted by
7179 posts

I think that Riquewihr was one of the award-winning "flower" decorated towns, so outdoor flowerbox time of year might be desirable. We had a car, so I can't help with scheduling. It might be fair to say that there are adequate substitutes for Riquewihr that might have easier transportation. I think we slept in Ribeauville.

Posted by
4684 posts

The bus timetable is here. Notes:

The days of the week each journey operates are given using French names for days, which in order starting on Monday are Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi. There is no service on Sunday.

Journeys headed "Schol." run during school term times only.