Visiting Alsace wineries near Colmar without a car

There is at least one winery right in the city of Colmar, Domaine Martin Jund.

It might be easier if you stayed in one of the charming villages. Why not rent a car? We took train to Strasbourg from Paris and stayed a few days. Then we picked up a rental car and stayed in one of the wine villages and visited others every day.

While renting a car is best, we are older and want to travel without using a car. Driving in Italy was hectic for us and some say it is possible to enjoy Alsace without a car plus we bought a rail pass. We were thinking of local bus and local wineries.

We are visiting Colmar next Spring for a few days and arriving by train, have you found somewhere to stay near the train station

My husband and I usually take public transportation when we travel. Colmar is a wonderful base in the Alsace region. I agree with the above post @jules m about tasting wine at Domaine Martin Jund located right in Colmar.

While in Colmar, we visited some of the nearby villages that all have charming wine tasting rooms. One day, we took a short taxi ride (15 euros) to pretty Equisheim. I believe that this little village has 34 wineries! In Equisheim, we tasted wines recommended in Rick's France guidebook at Paul Schneider's winery in the family's cellar/tasting room. (4 tastings for 6 euros). Another day, we enjoyed the 10 min. train ride from Colmar to the village of Turckheim. Also, the TI in Colmar helped us with the local bus schedule to the picturesque wine village of Riquewihr.

Enjoy your trip!

We loved Eguisheim, in fact, we stayed a couple nights at a winery right in town. (Piere-Henry Ginglinger) They have a pretty tasting room right on the main street thru town. You also could check out pricing thru Uber or Bolt, they are often cheaper than taxis.

We are staying at a Vrbo in old town Colmar about 10 minutes from the train station. They offered to pick us up at the train station.

I appreciate the comments about buses and local towns to visit. They seem close and easy to do and we like the local atmosphere. Colmar seems a central place.

Colmar is a beautiful town and driving in the area is easy! Don't be afraid to rent a car and drive to Eguisheim - it's close and when we did it there was not much traffic (and it was during the Christmas market). After you've done this you may have the confidence to drive to other places (i.e. Kaysersberg) along the Route du Vin. If not, drive back to Colmar, drop the car, and then use the other alternatives suggested to get around the area. Have fun!

Your public transit option will be nearly entirely the bus, which is a solid choice.

Zind-Humbrecht is on the outskirts of Colmar. Among wine geeks it's top three in Alsace, but not really worth the slog to the suburbs if not a wine geeks.

Dambach la Ville is a gorgeous little tippy half-timbered Alsatian village on the train line just north of Selestat. About 45 minutes by train from Colmar with an easy change in Selestat. Village center 1k from train station; first winery half that. Dambach has maybe 15-20 wineries which are most all small family operations. I'd do some Googling to see which run tasting rooms. If you are committed to train travel it's your best bet, super quaint and less touristy than the villages farther south.

Eguisheim drools charm, absolutely lovely place. Taxi out there is a great suggestion, probably overall cheaper and more relaxing than car rental. Good tourist infrastructure w/o too much of the tour bus crowd.

Lastly probably not your wheelhouse, but IMO the best way to visit wine villages in Alsace is by renting a bicycle. Virtue and vice, rinse repeat as you glide across sublime vineyard and forest settings.

Thanks for the good suggestions about travel and especially wineries. We are in wine groups and visited wineries in Australia and Austria before where we did a bike wine tour and did the yearly wineries walk above Vienna. . We favor public transport and nice to know the tips for the Colmar area. . We have 2 days in Strasbourg after Colmar.

We had a 5 night stay in Colmar in 2018 and did so without a car. We had a one day route de vin tour with a small group in a van that was great. We also used buses (the schedules are not always convenient) and taxis to visit other villages. Taxi might seem extravagant but compared to renting a car and the stress of driving, it was a great choice for us.

Colmar is a good location if you don't have a car. We spent a week in Riquewihr w/o a car, and managed to visit a lot of wineries. But a lot of it involved long walks, complimented with buses. There are buses to various villages from Colmar, most of which will have several wineries. I know that Riquewihr is on that bus route, and maybe Ribeauville, both of which have numerous wineries. As to the suggestion of Zind-Humbrecht, I'll put in a negative comment, but I know many will disagree. We had a visit there several years ago, which was set up by someone in the wine business, and was not happy with it. I'd recommend just stopping in at small wineries at random. There isn't a whole lot of bad wine in Alsace.

Thank you. We intend to use public transport and buses to visit the many wineries. Did you have any problems visiting small wineries without reservations? In the US that is normal, but in Europe sometimes better to call ahead? A lot of what we do is decided that day.

Jim

In Alsace, we mostly just walked into the winery tasting rooms. You might make a list of wineries of interest by town and then make note of operating hours. It seemed to us, that a lot were closed for a couple hours midday. Also, if they are picking grapes, some do not operate tasting hours. They don't have the manpower. You might check websites of the wineries.

Did you have any problems visiting small wineries without reservations?

Never. And there are so many small wineries in Alsace that if one wasn't open when you showed up, you could probably just walk across the street to another. Unless it's lunch time.