Things to Do Around a Colmar Wine Tour

Colmar is where every wine day starts and ends, and it is worth more than the walk to your kerb. Here is what to do before or after your Colmar Wine guided tours: Little Venice, two museums, the wine fair, the Christmas markets and the one castle a tour here can take you into.

Little Venice, where the Rue Turenne kerb is

Little Venice (Petite Venise) is Colmar's canal quarter, a run of painted half-timbered houses along the water with flat-bottomed boats on it. It costs nothing to walk, and you are probably already booked into it: both Alsace Safari days leave from 6 Rue Turenne, in front of the Winstub Brenner, in the middle of the quarter.

The ICONICS half day leaves at 1:45pm, so you have the whole morning here first. The other two kerbs are close: 76A Grand Rue is 122 m away, the CGR cinema about 900 m north. Walk the canal early, before the day's crowds, and you will have the bridges to yourself.

The Musée Unterlinden and the Isenheim Altarpiece

The Musée Unterlinden is Colmar's great museum, and it holds the Isenheim Altarpiece. You can visit Wednesday to Monday from 9:00am to 6:00pm, with last entry at 5:30pm. An adult ticket is €14, reduced €12.

It closes on Tuesdays, and on 1 January, 1 May, 1 November and 25 December. On 24 and 31 December it opens 9:00am to 4:00pm. No wine tour here includes it, so treat it as a half day of its own, on a day that is not a Tuesday.

The Musée Bartholdi, in the sculptor's birthplace

The Musée Bartholdi fills the house at 30 rue des Marchands where Auguste Bartholdi was born. His best-known work is Liberty Enlightening the World, the Statue of Liberty, and the museum is the reason American visitors look for this street. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00am to 12:00pm and 2:00pm to 6:00pm, and closes on Mondays.

The museum does not publish its admission price on the page we read, so we do not print one: check at the door. The midday closure matters. If your wine tour ends at lunchtime, you will be waiting outside until 2:00pm.

The Foire aux Vins, 31 July to 9 August 2026

The Foire aux Vins d'Alsace is Colmar's wine fair, and its 77th edition runs from Friday 31 July to Sunday 9 August 2026. Those ten days are the busiest of the summer in town, so book your tour and your room early if your dates overlap.

The fair and a wine tour do different jobs. The fair gathers producers in one place in Colmar; a tour takes you to the villages and into the cellars. If you can, do both: the tour first, so you know what you like, then the fair to buy it.

Colmar's Christmas markets, 23 November to 29 December 2026

Colmar runs six Christmas markets from 23 November to 29 December 2026, and the wine villages run their own. Several open for two or four weekends only, not the whole of Advent, so check the village before you book a tour that stops there.

A wine tour in December is a good way to see three or four markets in a day without a car. The villages are at their busiest on market weekends, so expect slower lanes and ask for a morning start. The Christmas dates are the Colmar tourist office's own.

Haut-Kœnigsbourg, the one paid gate

Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg stands on a ridge 19.6 km north of Little Venice as the crow flies; the castle's own site gives 26 km from Colmar by road. It is the only paid gate any tour here carries. The Emblematic includes entry, and stops there if the castle's daily visitor numbers permit, so the visit is not guaranteed.

Bought at the gate, an adult ticket is €12, or €16 with the audio tour. Without a car, shuttle line 500 runs from Sélestat station for €3. Mondays open an hour late, and last entry is always an hour before closing, so plan your arrival.

Fitting a museum around a half-day tour

A half day leaves you half a day, and Colmar fills it well. Take the ICONICS tour at 1:45pm and you can spend the morning at Unterlinden, then walk to Rue Turenne in time. Take the Ophorus villages half day at 9:00am, and you are back for a late lunch and Bartholdi at 2:00pm.

A full day leaves no room for a museum: the Ophorus full day leaves at 9:30am and runs eight hours. Plan the museums for another day, and check the closing days first. Tuesday shuts Unterlinden, Monday shuts Bartholdi, and every other day both are open.

Questions about Colmar

Where these facts come from

The museum hours and prices come from musee-unterlinden.com and musee-bartholdi.fr, the fair's dates from foire-colmar.com, and the Christmas dates from the Colmar tourist office's own Christmas programme at noel-colmar.com. The castle's prices, hours, closures, road distance and shuttle are its own, from haut-koenigsbourg.fr. Kerb addresses and start times come from each tour's listing.

Tours that leave time for Colmar

ICONICS Tour: 1/2 day on the Wine Route, visit of 2 Villages + Tasting.

Hunawihr, an hour in Riquewihr and a winery, the tasting in the fare, from Rue Turenne at 1:45pm and back by early evening.

From $111 per person

Check Availability

Alsace villages half day tour from Colmar

Kaysersberg and Riquewihr with a guide, at 9:00am or 2:00pm; tasting fees are extra, and children from four can come.

From $87 per person

Check Availability

The Emblematic: visit of villages, Haut-Koenigsbourg, Wine tasting

Hunawihr, Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé and a tasting, plus the castle on days when its visitor numbers allow; entry is in the fare when the stop happens.

From $193 per person

Check Availability