Colmar in 2 days, on foot

This 2-day self-guided walking plan for Colmar covers 13 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 2 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Colmar rewards a detour.

The Colmar route at a glance

Day 1

Day 1 covers 7 stops over about 0.6 km as the crow flies, from Unterlinden Museum (Musée Unterlinden) to Quartier des Tanneurs (Tanners' District). ≈ 0.6 km between stops, straight line

Morning

1. Unterlinden Museum (Musée Unterlinden): Alsace's most visited museum, in a former Dominican convent, home to the Isenheim Altarpiece by Grünewald and Nicolas of Haguenau, and extended by Herzog & de Meuron in 2015. 0.1 km to the next stop
2. Maison des Têtes: A 1609 German Renaissance merchant house whose ornate facade bristles with about 106 carved heads and masks, crowned by a cooper statue that Bartholdi added on the gable in 1902. 0.1 km to the next stop
3. Dominican Church: A stark Gothic preaching hall whose choir shelters Martin Schongauer's 1473 Madonna of the Rose Bower, a luminous panel stolen from Colmar in 1972 and recovered a year later. 0.2 km to the next stop
4. Collégiale Saint-Martin (St Martin's Church): A large Gothic collegiate church built between 1234 and 1365, locally nicknamed the cathedral though Colmar never had a bishop; its bell tower reaches about 71 metres. 0.1 km to the next stop

Afternoon

1. Musée Bartholdi: The birthplace house of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, now a museum of his work, from Liberty maquettes to the Lion of Belfort. 0 km to the next stop
2. Maison Pfister: A richly painted, turreted corner house of 1537, built for a wealthy hatmaker and often called Colmar's earliest example of Renaissance architecture, though it keeps some medieval features. 0.1 km to the next stop
3. Quartier des Tanneurs (Tanners' District): A quarter of tall half-timbered houses near the Lauch, once home to Colmar's tanners; their airy attics were drying lofts for hides, and the district was restored in 1968-1974.

Day 2

Day 2 covers 6 stops over about 29 km as the crow flies, from Koïfhus (Ancienne Douane / Old Custom House) to Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg. ≈ 29 km between stops, straight line

Morning

1. Koïfhus (Ancienne Douane / Old Custom House): Colmar's medieval customs house, completed in 1480, where goods were once stored and taxed; its glazed-tile roof and turret date from an 1895-1898 restoration, and it now houses a restaurant. 0.1 km to the next stop
2. La Petite Venise (Little Venice): A canal-side quarter of colourful half-timbered houses along the River Lauch, nicknamed 'Little Venice', and among Colmar's most photographed and visited corners, best seen from the Pont Saint-Pierre. 0.1 km to the next stop
3. Covered Market: A bright 1865 market hall of pink sandstone, brick and cast-iron beside the Lauch, now a permanent terroir market where about twenty traders sell cheese, wine and regional Alsace produce. 5.2 km to the next stop

Afternoon

1. Eguisheim: A wine village seven kilometres from Colmar built in concentric rings around a medieval castle, traditionally the birthplace of Pope Leo IX and voted France's favourite village in 2013. 14 km to the next stop
2. Riquewihr: A walled, half-timbered Alsace wine village about eleven kilometres from Colmar, home to roughly 999 people, guarded by the Dolder tower of 1291 and renowned for its Riesling. 9.8 km to the next stop
3. Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg: A hilltop Vosges castle above the Alsace plain, ruined since a 1633 siege and heavily rebuilt from 1900 to 1908 for Kaiser Wilhelm II by architect Bodo Ebhardt.

Distances are straight-line between stops; streets add a little.

Where the route eats

Food and market stops on the Colmar tour, each with its own story in the app:

• Covered Market: A bright 1865 market hall of pink sandstone, brick and cast-iron beside the Lauch, now a permanent terroir market where about twenty traders sell cheese, wine and regional Alsace produce.

Updated: September 28, 2026

Full Colmar guide and all stops →