Colmar Day Trip From Strasbourg: The Day to Avoid

Colmar is the easiest day trip from Strasbourg, and by a wide margin. 26 to 35 minutes on the train, a departure every 30 minutes during the day, first trains early in the morning and returns running late into the evening.

So there is no logistics problem to solve. The only decision that counts is the day of the week, and that is precisely the thing guides mention at the bottom of the page, when they mention it at all.

The trap, in one sentence

The Musee Unterlinden closes on Tuesdays. The Musee Bartholdi closes on Mondays, and for the whole of January.

In other words, a Tuesday in Colmar costs you the Isenheim Altarpiece, which is the number one reason for making the journey. A Monday in January costs you both museums at once.

If your dates are flexible, aim for Wednesday to Sunday. If they are not, read on: the town is still beautiful without its museums, but the day becomes a different one.

What each day actually gives you

One further detail worth knowing: opening hours are reduced on 24 and 31 December in some years. If you are aiming at those dates, confirm them rather than assuming.

What is open decides the shape of the day more than anything else. With the museums open, Colmar is a full day. Without them, it is a very good half day and you should plan the rest of your time in Strasbourg accordingly.

The train, in practice

Nothing here is complicated, which is the main reason to do this trip without a car. The fastest services are the TGV runs that pass through, the rest are regional TER trains, and there are two to three of them an hour through the day.

Regional tickets need no reservation and no advance booking. You buy at a machine or at the counter in Strasbourg station, and you get on the next train. That flexibility is worth more than any saving from booking ahead, because it lets you decide on the morning itself, based on the weather.

The last return from Colmar to Strasbourg leaves late in the evening, comfortably after dinner, but the exact time varies by day of the week. Check your specific date if you plan to eat in Colmar rather than come back for it.

At the other end there is nothing to arrange either. Colmar has no tram. Everything is done on foot from the station, which is perfectly comfortable: the old town starts eight to ten minutes away and Petite Venise is twelve to fifteen.

Distances and fares for the wider network are in our practical section.

What to do once you are there

The short version: the Musee Unterlinden for the Isenheim Altarpiece, €14 full price and around two to three hours, then the Tanners' quarter, the covered market and Petite Venise on foot, all of them free.

The Musee Bartholdi, in the birthplace of the man who sculpted the Statue of Liberty, is €5 and the best value hour in town. The flat-bottomed boats through Petite Venise are short and queue badly in summer.

We set all of that out properly, stop by stop and in walking order, in our guide to what to do in Colmar. This page is about getting there and choosing the day.

How much of your trip Colmar deserves

This is the question the day-trip pages never ask. Colmar takes a full day out of a Strasbourg stay, travel included, and that day has to come from somewhere.

On a two-day trip, do not go. You will have seen the cathedral, Petite France and roughly nothing else, and you will leave without having seen the Neustadt or eaten a proper dinner. Colmar is not a substitute for Strasbourg.

On three days, it is the obvious third day, and the strongest one on the list. Two days for Strasbourg, one for Colmar, and you go home having seen two very different Alsatian towns rather than one twice.

On four days or more, take Colmar and a wine village day as two separate outings. Our guide to how many days you need in Strasbourg works through the trade-off, and Strasbourg or Colmar answers the question for people who can only pick one.

Colmar or the wine villages, if you only get one day out

Colmar is also the gateway to the wine route. Riquewihr, Ribeauville, Eguisheim and Kaysersberg are reached from Colmar station by bus or seasonal shuttle rather than by train, and the seasonal shuttle runs 3 April to 11 October 2026 at a frequency of every 1 hour 45.

That frequency is the whole story. Bolting a village on to a Colmar day turns one good outing into two rushed half days with a lot of waiting at a bus stop in between. Give the villages their own day, or leave them out.

If the villages are what you came for, our wine route without a car and the most beautiful villages in Alsace tell you which ones are genuinely reachable.

In December, it changes completely

During the Christmas market, Colmar concentrates a great deal more people than Strasbourg on a much smaller footprint. It is beautiful and it is tight, both at once, and the trains out of Strasbourg fill up at the obvious hours.

If you are going in December, read our guide to the Colmar Christmas market before you pick your slot. Going in the morning and coming back before the late afternoon changes the day entirely.

Planning the rest

Our what to see in Strasbourg guide covers the home base, and our itineraries show where a Colmar day fits without wrecking the rest of the week.

Sources: Musee Unterlinden and Musee Bartholdi practical information pages for hours, admission and the January closure, Colmar tourist office, SNCF Connect and TER Grand Est for journey times and frequencies. Rail times and fares are driven by our facts table, last reviewed in August 2026. The very last return of the evening varies by day: check your own date.