Colmar Christmas Market: What It Is Really Like

Colmar in December is the image that sells Alsace: half-timbered houses, canals, lights on the water, and a Christmas market that runs through the old town instead of sitting in one square. It deserves the reputation.

It is also small, and in December that matters. The same number of visitors that feels manageable in Strasbourg feels tight in Colmar, because the centre is a fraction of the size. Both things are true at once, and most guides only tell you the first.

Six markets, one walkable loop

Colmar does not run a single Christmas market. It runs several, spread across the historic centre: Place Jeanne d'Arc, the Ancienne Douane, the Dominicains, the Koïfhus, Petite Venise, and a gourmet market up at Montagne Verte.

They sit a few minutes' walk from each other, so you do the lot in one loop rather than choosing between them. Two to three hours covers all six at a normal pace, longer if you stop to eat properly.

They are not interchangeable. The Petite Venise stalls are the ones you have seen photographed, set against the canal and the half-timbered fronts. The Koïfhus and the Ancienne Douane sit in the tighter medieval squares, and Montagne Verte is where the food is, at the far end of the walk from the others.

During market hours the city closes the centre to cars, so the whole area is pedestrian. That is the biggest practical difference from an ordinary winter afternoon in Colmar, and it is the reason arriving by train works so well here.

Dates and opening hours

The market opens in late November and, unlike Strasbourg, keeps going after Christmas Day. The gourmet market and the big wheel run on longer still, into the first days of January.

Strasbourg, by comparison, runs late November to 24 December and then stops dead. If your trip falls in the week between Christmas and New Year, Colmar is the only one of the two still standing, and that single fact settles a lot of itineraries.

We do not reprint the daily timetable on this page. It changes with every edition, and so do the shortened hours around 24 and 31 December. Check the official Colmar Christmas site for the current calendar before you book a train.

Getting there by train from Strasbourg

This is the easy part. Trains run every 30 minutes through the day on the Strasbourg to Mulhouse and Basel line, and the trip takes 26 to 35 minutes depending on the service.

Colmar station is 15 to 20 minutes on foot from the first market stalls, or a few minutes on a TRACE city bus. Colmar has no tram, so once you are off the train everything happens on foot, which is comfortable in a town this size.

Returns run into the late evening, so you can stay for the lights and still sleep in Strasbourg. Confirm the last departure for your own date, because the final train moves around and a December evening is not the time to discover that.

Coming from Paris or from further away

Most English-speaking visitors arrive through Strasbourg, and that is the sensible route. Paris to Strasbourg takes 1 hr 45 min by direct train, and Colmar is a short hop further down the same line.

Sleep in Strasbourg, visit Colmar for the day. Strasbourg has far more hotel rooms, better long-distance connections, and its own market waiting for you in the evening when you get back.

There is one exception worth knowing. Strasbourg fills up first in December, so if the city is sold out on your dates, looking at Colmar instead can rescue the trip. Our where to stay guides cover the districts and what they cost.

The crowds, honestly

The myth is that Colmar is the calm alternative to Strasbourg. It is not. It is the smaller one, which is a different thing entirely, and on a busy day the compact centre concentrates people rather than absorbing them.

Friday afternoons from about four o'clock and every Saturday in December are saturated. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings are the good slots, and the difference is not subtle: the same streets, a fraction of the people, stallholders who have time to talk to you.

If a December weekend is your only option, arrive at opening rather than after lunch, and accept that the photograph of an empty canal reflecting the lights is not going to happen. That picture was taken on a Tuesday, or before the stalls opened.

Dress for standing still rather than for walking. An Alsace Christmas market is an hour of shuffling, then twenty minutes waiting for a mulled wine, and the cold finds you in a way it does not on a normal winter walk. Warm boots matter more than a warm coat here.

One last piece of timing. The lights are the point, and they earn their keep once it is properly dark, which comes early in December. A late afternoon arrival gives you the market lit, but it lands you in the worst of the crowd, so a full day with a break indoors in the middle beats a short evening visit.

Colmar or Strasbourg, if you only get one

First visit, one day, and you want the postcard: Strasbourg. The cathedral, the historic market and the tree on Place Kléber are what you came for, and there is far more to do around them when the stalls close.

Between Christmas and New Year: Colmar, without hesitation, because Strasbourg has already packed up. The same answer applies to a very early trip in November, since Colmar tends to open first of the two.

Two days or more: do both, and stop agonising. They are half an hour apart on the same line, and comparing them is half the pleasure of an Alsace Christmas trip. Our Christmas guides cover the Strasbourg side in detail.

The shape that works is simple. Take a mid morning train to Colmar, walk the six markets, eat there, then come back to Strasbourg in the late afternoon for the illuminations and the evening market. One hotel, two cities, no packing twice.

Eating and drinking without regret

The rule that applies in Strasbourg applies harder here: the terraces facing the canals and the ones along rue des Marchands are built for people passing through exactly once. Walk two streets away and both the price and the cooking change.

The covered market by the quai de la Poissonnerie is free to enter and makes a better lunch than most of the stalls, with the considerable December advantage of a roof and a chair. Opening hours vary through the week, so check on the door.

We do not publish a list of Colmar restaurants. We have not eaten our way through them, and our verification work covers Strasbourg. Recent reviews are a better guide than the biggest sign on the street.

The villages, and the shuttle trap

Kaysersberg, Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé and Eguisheim are the villages in every Alsace Christmas photo set, and not one of them has a railway station. The official answer is the seasonal Christmas shuttle bus from Colmar station.

Those shuttles run at weekends only during the market period, they are paid, and the Eguisheim line requires an online booking with a limited number of seats. Eguisheim itself sits about 6 km from Colmar station, roughly 4 miles, which is walkable for nobody carrying shopping in December.

The practical consequence is simple. From Strasbourg, a village day means a train to Colmar, then a shuttle, then the same in reverse, and it only works from Friday to Sunday. Two villages in a day is a good rhythm, three is a day spent waiting for buses.

Who should skip Colmar in December

This page would be useless if it only sold the place. There are people for whom the trip is a poor use of a day, and it is better to say so.

• Anyone whose main goal is the museums. Colmar's collections are the reason to come in any other month, and December is the worst time to try to combine the two.
• Anyone who dislikes crowds and can only travel at weekends. The compact centre works against you, and no amount of early arrival fixes a December Saturday.
• Anyone with one day and a first visit to Alsace. Strasbourg gives you more for the same day and the same money.
• Anyone expecting snow. The postcard version exists, but it is not the average December, and nobody can promise it to you.

Out of season, Colmar is a completely different town and a much easier one. Our guide to things to do in Colmar covers the museums, the boats and the day that actually works.

Before you book, four things in order: check the official dates and daily hours for the current edition, pick a weekday morning if you have any choice at all, book your hotel in Strasbourg unless Strasbourg is full, and note the last train back before you settle in for a second mulled wine. For reaching Alsace in the first place, our practical guides cover the trains and the airport.