Colmar is a city of about 70,000 in Alsace, forty minutes south of Strasbourg and twenty kilometres from the German border, and it is the best-preserved old town in the region. It escaped the bombing that flattened so much of the Rhine valley, so the half-timbering, the painted facades and the carved window frames are original rather than reconstruction.
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Understanding Colmar means knowing that Alsace changed hands four times between 1870 and 1945. That is not background colour, it is the explanation for everything you are looking at: the German timber framing and the French formality in the same street, the dialect that is a German dialect spoken by French citizens, and a food culture of sauerkraut, dumplings and Riesling that no other part of France has. Street signs are often bilingual French and Alsatian.
The single most important thing in the city is a painting. The Isenheim Altarpiece, painted by Matthias Grunewald around 1515 for a monastic hospital that treated ergotism, is in the Unterlinden Museum, and it is one of the most significant works in European art. The panels are displayed open so you can walk around them. People come to Colmar for the houses and leave talking about this.
The city is also the capital of the Alsace wine route, with Riquewihr, Eguisheim and Kaysersberg all within half an hour, and it runs one of the best Christmas markets in France.
What you pack is set by a continental climate with real winters, cobbles, and a lot of walking.
The Old Town, the Altarpiece and Little Venice
Original half-timbering, a world-class museum, and a very short canal.
The old town is compact and the walking is the point. The Maison Pfister of 1537, with its wooden gallery and painted panels, and the Maison des Tetes with 106 carved heads on its facade, are the two celebrated houses. The Koifhus, the old customs house, anchors one square; the Quartier des Tanneurs is a row of tall narrow tanners' houses with open top floors where hides were dried.
The Unterlinden Museum is in a thirteenth century Dominican convent with a modern extension, and the Isenheim Altarpiece is in the former chapel. Give it two hours. The Dominican church nearby holds Schongauer's Madonna in the Rose Bower, which is the other major painting in the city and is often missed.
La Petite Venise, Little Venice, is the stretch of the river Lauch below the covered market where the houses come down to the water. It is genuinely pretty and it is about two hundred metres long, so treat it as a photograph rather than a quarter. The flat-bottomed boat trips along it take twenty-five minutes.
Bartholdi, who sculpted the Statue of Liberty, was born in Colmar, and there is a museum in his birthplace and a replica of the statue at the northern entrance to the city. The covered market, the Marche Couvert, is a working nineteenth century iron and brick hall and the best place to eat cheaply.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Wine Route and the Vosges
Walled villages, grand cru slopes, and mountains behind them.
The Route des Vins d'Alsace runs 170 kilometres north to south and Colmar sits in the middle of its best section. Eguisheim is a village of concentric circular streets around a castle; Riquewihr is walled, intact and extremely busy; Kaysersberg has a ruined castle above it and a covered bridge. All three are within twenty-five minutes, and the villages between them, Turckheim, Niedermorschwihr, Hunawihr, are quieter and often better. Many estates do tastings without an appointment, and the grand cru slopes above the villages are the best walking in the immediate area.
The Vosges mountains rise directly behind the wine route. The Route des Cretes along the ridge is a classic drive, open in summer and often closed by snow from November to April. The Hohneck and the Grand Ballon are walkable summits with wide views, and the Lac Blanc and Lac Noir sit in glacial cirques below. The Haut-Koenigsbourg, a hilltop castle rebuilt in the early 1900s under Wilhelm II, is forty minutes north and is the dramatic one.
Further afield, Strasbourg is thirty-five minutes by train and has the cathedral and the European institutions. Basel in Switzerland is an hour and Freiburg in Germany is an hour and twenty minutes, both easily done by train.
Getting around: Colmar's old town is flat and small, and everything in the city is walkable from the station in fifteen minutes. The wine route is the one thing that is harder without a car: regional buses reach the bigger villages but infrequently, trains serve only some of them, and the practical options are a hire car, a bike on the flat vineyard lanes, or one of the half-day minibus tours that run from the tourist office. Cycling between villages is genuinely pleasant and mostly flat.
When to Go
May to June and September to October, or December for the markets.
Alsace has a continental climate sheltered by the Vosges, which makes it one of the driest parts of France: daytime highs from about 4C in January to 26C in July, cold clear winters with some snow, and warm summers.
Late spring, May and June, is the best weather for the villages and the vineyard walks, with long evenings and the vines in leaf.
September and October is the vendange, with wine festivals in most villages, the slopes turning gold and the heat gone. Early October is probably the single best time to come.
Summer is warm and busy, and Riquewihr in particular can be uncomfortably crowded by midday. The Colmar wine fair in August is a large event with concerts.
December is the other reason to come. Colmar runs six separate Christmas markets across the old town through Advent, they are among the best in France, and the whole city is decorated. It is also cold, often below freezing at night, and extremely busy at weekends, with accommodation booked months ahead and prices up accordingly. Come midweek if you can.
January to March is cold and quiet, with some wine estates closed and the Route des Cretes shut by snow.
Is Colmar Safe for Women Travelers
Colmar is a prosperous, quiet city and an easy place to travel alone.
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in France, and its terrorism wording is the strongest it uses: terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in France, with shopping centres, entertainment venues, sporting events, transport hubs and crowded gatherings named as possible targets. The everyday risks are more specific than that sounds. Pickpocketing is organised on the Paris Metro and on trains, typically in pairs with one person distracting you, and the FCDO records SERIOUS ASSAULTS on RER lines B and D, which matters because line B is the train most visitors take from the airports. Drink spiking is named with the drugs rather than hinted at: be alert to the possible use of date rape drugs including GHB and liquid ecstasy. Strikes and demonstrations happen at short notice and can stop trains and close roads, usually peacefully. And wildfires affect the south in hot dry summers.
The Paris-specific parts of that do not apply here: there is no metro and the RER warning is a capital matter. What does carry over is pickpocketing in dense crowds, which in Colmar means the Christmas markets above all, where the streets are narrow and the crowd moves slowly, and the station. A closed bag worn in front of you handles it. The drink-spiking caution applies in any bar and the FCDO names the drugs rather than implying them, which is worth reading once.
Day to day this is a calm and affluent city with low street crime. The old town is busy into the evening, eating alone is unremarkable, and the walk back from a restaurant is routine. The area around the station is the least pretty part and is unremarkable in daylight.
France is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident, which means you pay the same patient share a French resident pays rather than nothing. That is not the same as free and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. French hospitals are excellent and a pharmacie, marked by a green cross, handles minor problems without an appointment and will tell you where the duty pharmacy is out of hours. Tap water is drinkable everywhere. Dial 15 for a medical emergency or 112 for anything.
The physical cautions are seasonal and small. Cobbles in the old town are uneven and slick in rain, and in a December freeze the lanes in Little Venice and the Tanners' Quarter ice up and are not always salted early. The vineyard paths are easy walking but exposed, and the Vosges summits are proper mountains where weather changes fast and the Route des Cretes closes without much notice. If you are driving the wine route, note that tasting and driving is the obvious trap and the gendarmerie does test on that road.
The Colmar Packing List
Base layers, for a real continental winter
Colmar is colder than most of France in winter and warm in summer, so the useful layer is a thin one that works across both. Merino at 160gsm insulates when damp, resists odour over several days and is thin enough to wear alone in September, which is what makes it the one item to bring in any month. Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron with no synthetic blend. A long sleeve merino wool base layer for women sits under a coat in December and works on its own in June.
A proper warm layer from October to April
A fleece mid layer, and an insulated coat over it for the Christmas markets, because they are outdoors, at night, in a city that goes below freezing. Standing still in a crowd for two hours is much colder than walking through it, and people consistently underdress for that.
A hat and gloves in winter, not optional
A merino wool beanie and insulated touchscreen gloves. December evenings here are genuinely cold and the mulled wine does less than people hope.
A hooded waterproof
A packable rain jacket for women. Alsace is dry by French standards but the rain that does come is often in short heavy bursts, and the vineyard paths offer no shelter.
Shoes you can walk cobbles in
Walking shoes with grip. The old town is entirely cobbled, the stones are uneven and polished smooth in the busiest streets, and in winter they ice. Merino wool socks, which keep working damp.
Sun protection in summer
A wide brim hat and sunscreen for the vineyard walks and the Vosges, which are exposed and higher than they look. The grand cru slopes have no shade.
The small things
Cash in euros for village wine estates and market stalls. A European two-pin adapter. A refillable bottle; tap water is drinkable. A tote or small bag for wine bought at a cellar, because you will. Book December accommodation months ahead, and consider midweek. And if you are driving, check whether the Route des Cretes is open before planning a day around it.
Essential Resources for Women in Colmar
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile, with operators who will find an English speaker. It is the single number across the whole European Union.
Non-emergency police: dial 17 for police and 112 for any emergency. Colmar has both a municipal police force and a Police Nationale commissariat. A theft needs an in-person report, the declaration de vol, to produce the document an insurer requires. English is widely spoken in a city with this much tourism, though less so at the commissariat.
Main hospital or clinic: the Hopitaux Civils de Colmar, the Hopital Pasteur, has a full emergency department in the city. Dial 15 for the medical emergency service, SAMU, or 112. A pharmacie, marked with a green cross, handles minor problems and posts the duty rota for nights and Sundays.
Official health authority: Sante publique France, the national public health agency. France is in the EU, so a UK GHIC or EU EHIC gives you state-provided care on the same terms as a resident, which means paying the same patient share rather than nothing, and does not cover repatriation
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Paris. Paris, with a consulate general in Strasbourg thirty-five minutes away by train, which is the relevant one for Alsace
Official tourism authority: Atout France, the national tourism body. With the Colmar tourist office for the six Christmas market locations and dates, the wine route minibus tours, and which estates are open for tasting out of season
The Christmas markets: six of them across the old town through Advent, excellent and extremely crowded at weekends. Dense slow crowds in narrow streets are where pickpocketing happens here. Book months ahead and come midweek if you can.
Winter underfoot: the cobbles in Little Venice and the Tanners' Quarter ice in a freeze and are not always salted early.
The wine route: tasting and driving is the obvious trap on a road the gendarmerie does test. A minibus tour or a bike removes the question.
US State Department travel advisory: the France advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Solo women safety assessment: Colmar is a prosperous, quiet city and among the easier places in France to travel alone. Street crime is low, the old town stays busy into the evening, eating alone is unremarkable, and the walk back from a restaurant is routine. Most of the FCDO's France warnings are written for Paris and do not reach here, since there is no metro and the serious-assault note for RER lines B and D is a capital matter. What does carry over is pickpocketing in dense slow crowds, which in Colmar means the Christmas markets above everything else, where narrow streets and a barely-moving crowd are ideal conditions, and to a lesser extent the station; a closed bag worn in front of you is the answer. The drink-spiking caution applies in any bar anywhere and the FCDO names the drugs explicitly rather than hinting, which is worth reading once. The area immediately around the station is the least attractive part of the city and unremarkable in daylight. The practical risks here are seasonal rather than social: the cobbles are uneven and polished smooth in the busy streets, they ice in a December freeze and are not always salted early, and the Vosges summits behind the wine route are real mountains where the weather turns quickly and the ridge road closes with little notice. If you are driving the wine route, tasting and driving is the trap, and the gendarmerie does test on that road.
Reading On
For the country-level picture, start with the France travel guide for women. For why one thin wool layer covers both a December market and a June vineyard, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
