Magical honeymoon Paris to Colmar day trip - can I make it happen?

You can certainly see the highlights of either Colmar or Strasbourg from 9am to 7pm. They are both charming, although I prefer the cozy feeling of Colmar. Strasbourg is likely to be easier to get in and out by rail. You will have to make the decision about your tolerance for travel hassles to make it happen. The Alsace is under-appreciated and quite lovely. Its geographic isolation keeps it off the beaten track for many Americans. I am sure you will make it the focus for a return trip in the future. We stopped in Colmar for lunch returning to Zurich from Heidelberg and returned several years late to give it the time it deserved. Best wishes with your planning.

While I understand the appeal of Colmar...it's charming there, I think it's too long for a day trip. Three hours each way makes for about 8 hours of travel time once you add in transit to and from the train stations each way and a little bit of waiting. I use one hour each way as a rule of thumb for a day trip...otherwise it's just too long.

How many days have you allocated to Paris at this point? 5 to Paris and 4 to Venice?

We have been to Colmar and Strasbourg each for a day on two different trips. We were driving through the area between France and Germany and stopped in. It is enough time to wander, but I'm not sure if it is worth the effort of spending 6 hours in transit. Maybe others have loved it more than me and would find it worth it. We prefer the small villages in Alsace instead.

I originally allocated 6 to Paris and 4 to venice.

I am waiting to confirm my bookings based on whether I should day trip from Colmar and back to paris. Or leave Paris and then go to Colmar overnight. Then I would have to head to Venice.

There are options like night trains to Dijon and Milan to venice. But I am not so sure that would be enjoyable?

Hello Panda eater,

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

I've been planning our trip to France & also considered traveling to Colmar & Strasbourg, however, have opted for other choices (Annecy, Chamonix, Provence, Loire Valley & Paris) for this trip.

Anyway, If you're totally set on visiting Colmar &/or Strausbourg, I like your second option.

The other option I have is to check out of Paris and then go to Colmar or Strasbourg and stay overnight possibly visit the one we don't stay in IF there is time or choose only one. From here I would make the journey to Basel, fly at 1:10pm to Venice arriving at 2:15pm (flight is $36 per person).

If you had more time in the Alsace Region, you could rent a car & drive the 'Route du Vin' (Wine Road) & visit vineyards & villages along the way.

As beautiful as Venice is, another option is to stay in France & visit other amazing regions such as Provence, the French Riviera, etc, etc...

You can always return to Italy & visit not only Venice but Florence, Rome, Cinque Terre, the Amafi Coast, etc, etc...

Happy wedding & honeymoon!

Well, since you have 6 nights in Paris, you could take away a night or two and do your Plan B. 4 or 5 nights in Paris. Train to Colmar, 1 or 2 nights in Colmar. Then you'd get yourself down to Basel for the EasyJet flight to Venice for 4 nights.

Colmar was a really pretty little town. I added to one of my trips because the pics I'd seen were so charming. It was a nice break from the big city. I used it as a two night resting place between two 3 night big city stays, which worked out nicely. I planned no activities while we were there....we just wandered.

I can't believe you have so many ball is the air still with your trip/honeymoon - now less than 4 months away.
By far the best idea is to overnight in Colmar, then a flight from Basel to Venice.

I actually have everything else handled besides train tickets and Paris /Venice :).

If I were you I would not invest this much getting there for a day trip to these places. There are literally dozens of great towns within an hour of Paris to offer a change of pace. Here a few we have done recently:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/day-trips-from-paris/
And there are Auvers sur Oise, Chartres, Rouen etc etc Alsace is an interesting area but not IMHO worth it as a day trip. If you could travel there from Paris and then on to Venice it would be worth taking a day for Strasbourg.

I think we scratched it from being a day trip.

If we did it we would move on from Paris to Colmar or Strasbourg, which should we overnight in and stay at?

is it worth staying in Colmar and then visiting Strasbourg. Then onward to Venice? Or just choose one of the towns?

is it worth staying in Colmar and then visiting Strasbourg. Then onward to Venice? Or just choose of the towns?

You can easily visit Strasbourg, as it's a simple 30 minute train ride from one city to the other.

I'd stay in Colmar, since it's closer to Basel (46 minutes via direct TER train)

Enjoy your honeymoon trip!

If you did an overnight I'd chose Colmar. It is smaller. You might find that you enjoy it there and don't feel a need to rush off to Strasbourg. See how you feel. It all takes much longer than you imagine!

Hi susan! I responded to your private msg as well :).

Does anyone feel like if I did a day trip to Rouen that would be more than satisfactory? The buildings/ homes/ architecture seem somewhat similar minus how colorful/ fairytale-like Colmar's buildings are.

I saw a previous comment mention their stop in Rouen for a day trip. But obviously Colmar has a particular charm about it.

It is nice to keep things simple without a lot of complications, especially on a honeymoon, but.....you could take one night from Paris and Venice (since you have adequate time for both) and spend two nights in Alsace. If you are looking for charm, I'd rent a car and do the wine route visiting villages. Look up Eguisheim....talk about charm! You could train to Colmar spend the afternoon, rent a car and take off for the countryside, then return it, and train to Basel. Just a thought...??

Eguisheim looks adorable!! It is 9 mins buy bus from Colmar! wow.

Now to choose if we should go to Eguisheim or Strasbourg. choices choices.

Does anyone know if there is anything i MUST MUST buy right now for my trip in Paris? We just bought out train tickets from London- Paris. but I know we need things like Louvre museum tickets etc.

I would love to handle this ASAP so we don't miss an opportunity to see some must-sees because I did not buy tickets right away.

Do you know what YOUR "must-see" Paris items are ?? If there are a lot of museums, then you could consider buying a Paris Museum Pass (buy when you get there) to reduce/ avoid lines. Walking along the Seine requires no advance reservations.

Sights

Eiffel tower
Sacre Couer
Champs Elysee
Arc de triompe
Louvre
Sienne River
Notre Dame
Love locks bridge
(so many)

Just to get a better understanding: Eguisheim has a population of 1,500 and is 5 square miles ( which is bigger than I thought)
Colmar has 67,000 pop and 25 square miles and Strasbourg has a pop of 275,000! So, you are talking a very, very different comparison. There are many tiny villages that are best done by car, but you can always bus to Eguisheim for just a quick look.

Prebooking for Paris? Nothing I can think of. You can buy your museum pass ( if you want one) while you are there, that is easy. We bought our Carnet of tickets for the metro and museum pass right in the airport. We did buy our Eiffel tower tickets ahead of time, and signed up for a Paris Greeter tour ahead of time. Maybe other people have ideas?