Things to Do in Colmar, France 2026: Little Venice, Old Town and Christmas Markets

This was the first thing we saw in Colmar. Pastel half-timbered houses line both banks of the Lauch, and even after Christmas the canal side was so packed we could barely move.

Flat-bottomed boats take visitors along the canal; in the video we called them gondolas. The queue at the landing stage was about an hour long, so we skipped it. If you want a ride on a busy day, make it your first stop of the morning.

Boats leave from under the Pont Saint-Pierre bridge and the loop takes around 25 minutes. The operator, Sweet Narcisse, lists €9 for adults and €4 for children aged 4 to 10; the Colmar tourist office page shows €10 and €5.

Under-3s ride free. Check with the operator that boats are running in December (sweet-narcisse.fr, tourisme-colmar.com).

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Want to stay nearby? See Little Venice hotels  Ad Little Venice guide 

A souvenir shop in the old town whose facade gets a new Christmas display every year. People queue to take a picture in front of it, and when we arrived it was hard even to walk past.

Come early in the morning for a shot without the crowd. The little tarte flambée place where we had lunch is right next door.

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Colmar’s main museum sits in a former Dominican convent. Its best-known work is the Isenheim Altarpiece, painted by Matthias Grünewald and carved by Niclaus of Haguenau between 1512 and 1516 (Wikipedia).

Doors open at 09:00 and close at 18:00 (last tickets 17:30) every day except Tuesday. Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve have a 16:00 close, and Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, 1 May and 1 November are closed days. Tickets for 2026: adults €14, reduced €12, young visitors €9 (museum’s 2026 programme and tourisme-colmar.com).

Want to stay nearby? See the Mercure next to the museum  Ad Best hotels in Colmar 

The two most famous house fronts in the old town. Maison Pfister, with its painted walls and wooden gallery, was built in 1537 for a hatter; Maison des Têtes, covered in carved stone faces, dates from 1609 (Wikipedia). Neither is a museum, so you look at them from the street.

Maison des Têtes now holds a hotel and restaurant; the link below goes to that hotel.

Want to stay nearby? See La Maison des Têtes  Ad Best hotels in Colmar 

Once it got dark the whole town lit up. One building’s facade kept changing colour. We walked the streets we had seen in daylight a second time, and this was our favourite hour in Colmar.

The official Christmas site says the decorations shine alongside a permanent lighting scheme designed to pick out the historic buildings (noel-colmar.com).

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Want to stay nearby? Staying in the old town 

Everyone calls it the cathedral, but it is the Collegiate Church of Saint-Martin. Building took more than a century in the Middle Ages, and it was a real cathedral for only about a decade after the French Revolution; the name stuck anyway (tourisme-colmar.com).

The tourist office’s 2025 listing gives Monday to Saturday 08:00-18:45 and Sunday 10:00-19:00, with no visits during services; 2026 hours were not yet published on 31 October 2026.

In the evening we walked the market next to the church: sweets everywhere, salted potatoes and gifts. Which market is where, and when, is on our Colmar Christmas market page.

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Want to stay nearby? See Logis Hotel Saint-Martin  Ad Old town guide 

Best for: a first visit, when the point is to be out among the stalls after dark and on foot.

Trade-off: the priciest and busiest part of town in the Christmas weeks; the centre is closed to cars during market hours.

Best for: anyone arriving by train with luggage who wants a short walk from Colmar train station to the hotel.

Trade-off: it sits outside the old town, so the walk back from the markets is about a kilometre.

Four or five restaurants turned us away before we found this small place that only makes tarte flambée. The base is wafer-thin and crisp, topped with local cheese, cream and onion. It beat the one we had in Freiburg the day before by a long way.

The second one had cheese, onion, cream and mushrooms, and was just as good. The first came with pieces of bacon, so if you do not eat pork, order the mushroom version and ask about the toppings.

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After lunch we had coffee and the house chocolate tart at a café called Moka. It was too full, and my camera was charging, so there is no footage. Finding a seat anywhere in Colmar at Christmas is hard; here at least we sat down.

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Most stalls at the church market sold sweets; the savoury option we saw was salted potatoes. Enough for grazing on your feet while you walk the stalls in the evening.

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Some restaurants open at 18:00, others close then; we never worked out the pattern. Without a booking we asked at four or five places before we got a table. Café seats are scarce too.

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Even after Christmas the streets were full. The official Christmas site publishes a day-by-day crowd forecast (noel-colmar.com ); go on a weekday morning if you can.

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When we came after Christmas, the village markets nearby had closed but Colmar’s were still open. In 2026 the Colmar markets run until 29 December, and the gourmet market and Ferris wheel until 3 January 2027.

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Météo-France’s 1991-2020 averages for Colmar give a December low of 0.2 °C and a high of 6.3 °C (Wikipedia). You will stand outside at the markets for hours, so bring thermals, gloves and thick socks.

Whether a visa is needed for an Alsace trip depends on the passport you hold; France’s own checker at france-visas.gouv.fr gives the answer in a minute. Non-EU travellers now have fingerprints and a photo taken under the EU Entry/Exit System on their first entry.