Colmar Day Trip from Basel: Four Ways to Do It

Colmar is the easiest French day trip from Basel. Trains leave Basel SBB from the French platforms, and while the Swiss track works near Basel run, most need a change at Saint-Louis, so allow about an hour each way. Go alone for the lowest cost, take the guided train day for the history, or the minibus if you want Haut-Koenigsbourg castle in the fare.

Four ways to see Colmar from Basel, side by side

Here is what each way costs you in hours, and what the fare carries. Prices are per person.

The train alone suits you if you have been to Alsace before. The guided train day suits a first visit, the minibus suits you if the castle matters, and the van suits you if you want France and Germany in one day. For every fare in the city side by side, see Basel tour prices.

Check dates for the castle minibus

How do you get from Basel to Colmar?

By TER, the French regional train. At Basel SBB it leaves from the French platforms, 33 and 35 in the timetable for September to December 2026. Look at the board on the day, since the platform can change.

Plan on about an hour. The guided day's own description gives a 40-minute ride, and that was the through train. In the timetable for autumn and December 2026, every morning train to Colmar changes at Saint-Louis, the first stop in France, and takes 56 minutes. The evening trains back take about 57 minutes, with one change.

The reason is on the Swiss side. SBB is rebuilding the line between Basel station and the French border, from 3 November 2025 to May 2029. The Grand Est region says 88 TER trains a week, 14% of them, no longer run on the stretch between Basel and Saint-Louis.

1. The train on your own

This is the cheapest way, and the freest. You pay your own train fare and nothing else.

• You choose the hours. Leave when you like, and stay for dinner if you want the lit canals.
• You choose the stops. Spend the whole day in the museum, or none of it.
• You lose the guide. Nobody tells you the story of the houses you pass.
• You lose the villages. The castle and the wine villages are hard to string together by train.

If you are going alone, our guide to Basel without a tour covers the trams, the ferries and the rest of the do-it-yourself planning.

2. The guided train day from Basel SBB

You meet in the departure hall at Basel SBB, across from the ticket office, and ride to Colmar together. The train ticket is in the fare, so you do not queue for one. You then have about six and a half hours in Colmar.

The day starts with about two and a half hours on foot with a local guide through the old town. After that you have about an hour and a half free for an Alsatian lunch. Outside the Christmas market season, the day can take in the Unterlinden Museum and a tasting of Alsace wines, such as Riesling and Gewürztraminer, at a local winery.

In the Christmas season you taste at the market instead, from local producers, hot wine included. Up to 20 people join, the listing marks it wheelchair accessible, and you can cancel for a full refund up to 24 hours before. It costs $261, and it holds 5.0 from four reviews.

Check dates for the guided train day

3. The minibus to Colmar, the castle and Ribeauvillé

This is the lowest fare of the three guided days, at $108, and the one with the most travellers behind it: 4.7 from 51 reviews. The minibus leaves BaselCitytour stop 01, at the coach parking next to the Tinguely Fountain on Steinenberg, and the day runs from 9am to 6pm.

• Colmar, 3 hours. You explore on foot, on your own.
• Haut-Koenigsbourg, 1 hour 15 minutes. The castle ticket is in the fare.
• Ribeauvillé, 1 hour 30 minutes. A wine village, also on foot.

A driver-guide takes you between stops, with a brochure in English and German. Food and drink are extra. One traveller expected a guided walk in Colmar and found there was none, so plan your three hours before you go. A foldable wheelchair can travel, but the castle is step-free only to the lower courtyard.

4. The van to Eguisheim, Colmar and Freiburg

This is the day for two countries. A guide-driver collects you from your Basel hotel at 9am and takes you to Eguisheim for an hour, Colmar for two hours and Freiburg im Breisgau, in Germany's Black Forest, for two more. The guided walks are in the fare.

It runs seven to nine hours and costs $286. Food, drinks and tips are extra. It gives you the shortest time in Colmar of the three guided days, so it suits you if you want a taste of each place more than a long look at one.

What should you see in Colmar in a day?

The old town is small enough to walk. These are the sights the Colmar tourist office points you to, in a loop you can walk in a morning.

1. Little Venice. Canals lined with timbered houses, the view most people come for.
2. The Quai de la Poissonnerie. The old quarter of the fishermen and boatmen.
3. The Unterlinden Museum. Home of the Isenheim Altarpiece.
4. The Koïfhus. The oldest public building in Colmar, planned in 1433 and finished in 1480.
5. The Pfister house. Built in 1537, the first Renaissance building in Colmar.
6. St Martin's collegiate church. Built between 1235 and 1365.
7. The covered market. Designed in 1865, by the canal.
8. The Dominican Church. Home since 1973 of Martin Schongauer's Madonna of the Rose Bush.
9. The Bartholdi Museum. In the family house of the man who made the Statue of Liberty.

If you want a quiet corner, the cloister of the Dominican library is free to enter.

Is the Unterlinden Museum worth your hours?

Yes, if you care about art. Before it was a museum, Unterlinden, "under the linden trees", was a convent of Dominican sisters, from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution.

Its great work is the Isenheim Altarpiece. Between 1512 and 1516, Niclaus of Haguenau carved the sculpture and Grünewald painted the panels, for the Antonite monastery at Isenheim, about 15 miles south of Colmar.

The museum opens Wednesday to Monday, 9am to 6pm, with last entry at 5.30pm. Admission is €14, or €17 with the audioguide. Ages 12 to 17 and students under 30 pay €9, and under-12s go free, as do holders of the Museum-Pass-Musées.

Is the Little Venice boat worth it?

For a first visit, yes. Sweet Narcisse runs 25-minute trips on flat-bottomed boats through Petite Venise and the Quai de la Poissonnerie, from the foot of the Pont Saint-Pierre.

Adults pay €10, children aged 4 to 10 pay €5, and under-3s ride free. One traveller on the minibus day recommended it. It fits easily into the minibus's three hours and into a train day. On the van's two hours it is tight, so choose it or the museum.

Is Haut-Koenigsbourg worth adding?

If you like castles, yes. The town of Sélestat gave the ruin to Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1899. The architect Bodo Ebhardt restored it completely from 1900 to 1908, and it has belonged to the French state since 1919.

Bought at the gate, adults pay €12, ages 6 to 17 pay €8, and under-6s go free. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month from November to March. The ticket office closes an hour before the castle does.

Only the minibus day includes it, with the ticket in the fare. By train it is hard to reach, so if you want the castle, the minibus is the simple answer.

Can you do Colmar at Christmas from Basel?

Yes, and it is one of the best times to go. Colmar's six Christmas markets run from 23 November to 29 December 2026. Eguisheim's runs from 27 November to 30 December, and Ribeauvillé holds a medieval market on 5 and 6 and on 12 and 13 December 2026.

On the guided train day, market tastings replace the wine tasting in the season. There is also a three-markets day, but it starts in Colmar, not Basel. For the market in Basel itself and the rest of the season, read our guide to Basel at Christmas, and check Basel weather by month before you pack.

Which way suits you?

• First time in Alsace, and you want the history: the guided train day.
• You want the castle and a second village: the minibus.
• You want France and Germany in one day, from your hotel: the van.
• You have been before and want the evening: the train on your own.

If Colmar is one option among several, our guide to choosing a day trip from Basel sets it against the Alps and Lucerne. Every day trip is carded on day tours from Basel, and the city itself is on our Basel sightseeing tours.

Frequently asked questions

Days that take you to Colmar

From Basel: Colmar Christmas Market & Wine Tasting Small Group

A guided day by train from the hall at Basel SBB, with the ticket in the fare: about two and a half hours on foot in the old town, then time for lunch. Outside the Christmas season it ends at an organic wine producer.

From $261 per person

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From Basel: day trip to Colmar, Hohkönigsburg, Ribeauvillé

A nine-hour minibus day from the Tinguely Fountain coach stop: three hours in Colmar on your own, the Haut-Koenigsbourg castle with its ticket paid, then Ribeauvillé. Food is at your own cost.

From $108 per person

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From Basel: French Villages and Black Forest in Small Group

Seven to nine hours with a guide-driver from your hotel at 9am: an hour in Eguisheim, two in Colmar, then two in Freiburg im Breisgau across the German border. The guided walks are in the fare; food and drinks are not.

From $286 per person

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