Alsace Christmas Markets 2026: Dates, Route, Best Towns

Alsace has no single Christmas market and no shared calendar: each town sets its own 2026 dates, and every market here is free to walk into. Usual hours are below; opening days, Christmas Eve and other exceptions are in the guide for each town.

All five trade together only on the weekends from Friday 27 November to Sunday 20 December. If you were looking for the Alsace Christmas market 2025 dates, that season has ended and this table is for this winter. Obernai's calendar also shows 30 December as a last day, so ask the tourist office before planning around the 31st.

Dates can change, confirm before you go on the official page in each market's card (official information, checked 1 November 2026).

Other countries are on our European Christmas markets  page.

• First visit, big city: Strasbourg, with eight markets and the Great Christmas Tree.
• The storybook canal scene, or travelling with children: Colmar, which has a whole market for kids in Little Venice.
• A medieval village inside its walls: Riquewihr, open daily until 20 December.
• Crafts on a weekend away: Kaysersberg, open only from Friday to Sunday.
• Something small and easy by train: Obernai, a short ride from Strasbourg.
• Between Christmas and New Year: only Colmar and Obernai are still trading.

Colmar or Strasbourg Christmas market? For us the highlight was Colmar, for the way it looks, and it was also where we could hardly move. Strasbourg gives you more markets and more evening. Trains between them need only about thirty minutes, which makes both possible on a two-night trip.

Two days: Colmar and Strasbourg, by train. You miss the villages but need no car and no shuttle.

Three days, our suggestion for all five: arrive on a Friday between 27 November and 18 December. Friday: Obernai in daylight, Strasbourg for the evening. Saturday: train to Colmar and the shuttle to Riquewihr and Kaysersberg, back for dinner. Sunday: Colmar's squares in the morning, before the crowds, then home through Basel.

The route we took: we did this on a coach tour from Basel airport, after a first day in Freiburg and Basel. The order was Riquewihr, Kaysersberg 20 minutes on, Colmar half an hour later; next day Haut-Kœnigsbourg Castle, Obernai and finally Strasbourg. That order works just as well in a hire car.

Haut-Kœnigsbourg: no market, but the castle sits above the plain between Colmar and Obernai, and we broke the drive there. Winter days are short: on 1 November 2026 the official hours stopped at 17:00, with a break at lunchtime. See castle entry tickets  Ad

The castle stopWatch in the video · 22:15 

Through Basel: we landed at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and left by the French exit. Without a tour, the bus from that exit goes to Saint-Louis station for regional trains north. From Basel, the fastest train reaches Colmar in 37 minutes and Strasbourg in 75 to 90 (Omio, October 2026).

Check Basel to Colmar trains  Ad

Check Basel to Strasbourg trains  Ad

Through Strasbourg: from Paris Gare de l'Est, the TGV needs about 1 hour 46 minutes. From Strasbourg, regional trains reach Obernai in 28 minutes and Colmar in about half an hour (Omio, October 2026).

Check Strasbourg to Colmar trains  Ad

Check Strasbourg to Obernai trains  Ad

The village shuttle bus: Riquewihr and Kaysersberg have no station. From 27 November to 20 December 2026, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the Christmas shuttle leaves Colmar station for both. A day ticket is €17, under-12s are free, and sales open on 12 November at 12:00 CET on the shuttle page  (official information, checked 1 November 2026).

By car or tour: a hire car adds the castle, but Strasbourg and Colmar keep traffic out of the centre during market hours, so use the park-and-ride sites listed in each guide. A guided Christmas market tour from Strasbourg or Colmar saves all of this planning.

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We did not sleep in Strasbourg or Colmar on our tour, so this is about choosing a base rather than a hotel. Rooms go early: Booking showed over 98 per cent of Riquewihr and Kaysersberg places gone for the second Saturday of December when we searched on 15 October 2026.

Strasbourg: the widest choice and the best trains; for each neighbourhood, read where to stay in Strasbourg .

Colmar: the closest city to the villages and the starting point of the shuttle; see where to stay in Colmar .

Villages and Obernai: quiet once the day trippers leave, but better with a car. For every Alsace base side by side, see where to stay in France .

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Vin chaud: the French name for what Germans across the Rhine call glühwein. Over dinner in Colmar we tried red and then white; I had never met the white version and liked it better.

Tarte flambée: thin dough with cream and onion, often bacon. Ours in Colmar also came with cheese and mushrooms.

Pretzels and waffles: easy to eat while you walk. In Riquewihr we also found a chocolate-covered marshmallow on a honey wafer, sold by a dessert shop.

To take home: bredele, the Alsace Christmas cookies, sold by the box, plus pain d'épices, kougelhopf and Obernai's cured meats.

Cups: in Strasbourg hot drinks come in a returnable cup with a €1 deposit, refunded at any drinks stall (official information, checked 1 November 2026).

Red and white vin chaudWatch in the video · 20:43 

Book dinner and boats: Colmar and Strasbourg were the two places where going without a booking cost us, in tables and in canal rides.

Choose your day: Strasbourg's organisers point to mornings and weekdays as the calmer times. Save Kaysersberg for a Friday to Sunday and do Riquewihr on a weekday.

Pay and dress: nearly all Strasbourg chalets take cards, but queues build at island ATMs, so carry some cash. It was cold on our trip, and layers helped more than any single coat.

Papers: France, Germany and Switzerland are all in Schengen, so one entry covers a route through Basel. Our Schengen visa guide  explains who needs to apply.

• Best Christmas markets in Europe : the wider list from our own trips.
• Alsace, France : the region beyond Christmas, with the map, food and things to do.
• Things to do in Freiburg : the German stop at the start of our tour.
• France travel guide : time zone, currency and getting around.

The whole trip is in our 71-minute Alsace Christmas vlog .