Day trip to Colmar

I thought the tourist train was boring. I’ve no idea if it was green or white, I was just tired and wanted to sit down. Unfortunately most of the cool things are in the pedestrianized area which are not seen from the train.

I would go to the tourist office first. Get their walking route map and follow that which will take you by St Martin’s plus a dozen restaurants with local cuisine.

Here’s a link to the map with the walking tour in red with numbered stops. If you have data on your phone you can also follow that as the stops all have QR codes.

https://reservation.tourisme-colmar.com/medias/documents/documentation/documentation-PLANCOLMAR-UK.pdf

The Unterlinden Museum is excellent and directly across from the TI office. I’d start there and work your way back to the train station.

The Christmas Market may be going by then.

Thanks for the info, in particular the map and walking paths of old town in Colmar. Much appreciated. We will certainly visit Unterlinden museum. I note that very little information related to local german culture of the past is mentioned in the tourist brochures of Colmar that I managed to read on line.

The Colmar Christmas Market opens on 24 November. Any chance you could schedule your day trip then?

Unfortunately, our plan is to leave Basel November 24th for Zurich (I have purchased supersaver train tickets on SBB for that day) and stay in the city for 2 nights, look at the attractions in Zurich during those 2 days before returning home on November 26th.

We stayed the night in Colmar June 2022 and left via Basel. Trains run very often, and it's a short trip. Easy to walk from train station to the colmar walk in RS's book. We dragged 2 kids and 2 bags to the Ibis budget hotel on foot. No big deal.

We didn't leave the city, bc were only there 1 day. Also didn't visit the museum due to kiddos. Even if the xmas market isn't open, there are xmas shops. We bought a couple of small ornaments while we were there. We walked everywhere, no train.

Recommend Restaurant au Feu Rouge for dinner. Alsatian cuisine. Very nice service. Baekenoffe was delicious. We fed all 4 of us for about 80 euro before tip. Can't beat that.

Bill

Besides the ideas Pam mentioned, I would try to take a taxi out to at least one of the nearby villages - Eguisheim or Riquewihr, etc. - very charming! We were in that area for three nights in 2019. Eguisheim, the closest one, is 10 minutes from the train station by taxi.

Thanks for the info/recommendation about Restaurant Au Feu Rouge. Will certainly visit the place for lunch. I looked at the menu. Looks appealing to me! Will also visit X-Mas shops during our visit if they are open.

Considering that our visit is a day trip lasting for about 7 hours or so given the time of the year, we may not have enough time to visit surrounding areas.

“I note that very little information related to local german culture of the past is mentioned in the tourist brochures of Colmar that I managed to read on line.”

I have terrible foreign language skills. Here’s how my conversation went with a waiter in Colmar:

Waiter - Rapid-fire talking while handing me the menu
Me - Je ne parle pas francais.
Waiter - Well, that was my German not my French. Did you want English?
Me - Yes, please.

So….my impression was that German is the first language and current culture.

BTW, I found Colmar completely charming. So much so that I ditched the plan to go to Strasbourg for a day and spent 2 full days there.

So….my impression was that German is the first language and current culture.

It is very easy to mistake Americans for Germans; after all didn't Germany provide one of the largest contingent of immigrants to the USA?
That's probably what happened. Otherwise, the local languages are French and Alsatian. Alsatian is relatively close to standard German but not that close: a standard German speaker will not usually understand Alsatian. Many Alsatians do learn and speak German, after all it makes sense to do so for proximity reasons and it is not too hard if they have some command of Alsatian to start with. But, despite this proximity, suggestions that Alsace is basically "German France" are best avoided, for historical reasons.

Yes, Pam, I agree with Balso: I think your story reflects the large number of German tourists in Colmar, not German-speaking residents. Especially if it is on a Sunday/holiday. (It is just the same in Freiburg, for the record: Huge amounts of French (and of course Swiss) day trip visitors.)

Interesting discussion related to Alsatian culture and language indeed! I am hoping (and waiting!) to get any info/recommendations related to boat cruise that we may be able to take while visiting Colmar from experienced fellow travellers.

I agree with a poster above that you should try to see one of the charming wine villages. Strasbourg is a beautiful city too.

I've never done the little boats - I assume that's what you mean - so that's why you haven't heard from me. But I hear the impatience in your post.... and understand it. Maybe nobody here has.

If you mean the little boats that go along the canal in the center of Colmar, this site may be helpful.

https://www.barques-colmar.fr/en/

Thanks for the info concerning the boat rides. Much appreciated!

Love Colmar; it is a wonderful place to walk around. I saw no reason to take the boat ride as it didn’t look like you could see as much as you could by foot. Of course, I love to walk.

I can’t see the point of visiting one of the wine villages if you have only 6-7 hours. It will make the day feel very rushed and you will waste time in transit, even if it is only a half hour total. You are planning to visit the museum, shop, and have a nice sit down meal. That will take at least three hours and you need time to stroll around the beautiful town. Plus you need to walk from and to the train station. The wine villages are cute, but they look very similar to Colmar and there may not be much open in the villages in late November. I suggest you just enjoy Colmar and not try to cram in too much.

Thanks very much for the info concerning small boat trip in Colmar. We will defer the boat ride during our day trip .

I completely agree that we would not enough time to visit the surrounding villages/wineries etc, during our relatively short day trip. We will focus on enjoying the

Local attractions