Where to stay for the Colmar Christmas market in 2026

The 2026 edition runs from 24 November to 29 December. The chalets open from 10 am to 7 pm Monday to Thursday, and from 10 am to 8 pm Friday to Sunday. Two days are exceptions: on 24 December closing is brought forward to 5 pm, and on 25 December opening is pushed back to 2 pm with closing at 7 pm. The food market on the cathedral square follows its own rhythm, until 10 pm every day.

These hours have a practical consequence for anyone not sleeping in town: late evenings are possible, including on weekdays, and the last train is the only real constraint to check before setting off. The rest falls into place easily, especially as Colmar station is a few minutes’ walk from the historic centre.

Colmar does not hold one market but six, all in the historic centre, a few hundred metres apart. Place des Dominicains gathers the traditional chalets and the funfair. Place de l’Ancienne Douane, ringed with half-timbered houses, is the most photographed. The Koïfhus houses the only indoor market, over two floors, given over to jewellery and blown glass: the useful fallback on a wet day.

La Petite Venise suits children best, with its mechanical nativity and its rides. Place Jeanne d’Arc is the tightest, turned towards regional specialities. Finally, the food market on the cathedral square is better visited in the evening than in the afternoon, since it stays open two hours longer than the others.

Turckheim is the first stop after Colmar on the Colmar to Metzeral railway line: the station sits at kilometre point 5.871, barely five kilometres from the Colmar terminus. The journey takes about ten minutes, with some fifteen services each way spread across the day. In other words you can spend the afternoon at the Colmar market, have dinner there, and travel back without hunting for a parking space in December.

The argument does not stop at transport. Turckheim holds its own Christmas market from 27 November to 30 December 2026, inside its fortified walls. The Elves’ Village occupies the town hall square, some thirty wooden huts housing craftspeople and producers. The giant Advent calendar opens every evening at 5 pm, and the night watchman makes his round at 9 pm, in costume with halberd and lantern, a tradition whose written traces go back to 1540.

For a stay of several nights, this double footing is what really sets Turckheim apart from a mere dormitory town: the evenings do not depend on a return trip to Colmar.

Rouffach lies fifteen kilometres south of Colmar, on the Strasbourg to Basel line. The service is direct, about eight minutes, with a dozen trains a day. It is the second logical base for the season, and often the quieter one: Rouffach remains a wine town on the plain, away from the December flow.

The position also works for exploring. Eguisheim, a circular village listed among the most beautiful in France, holds its market from 27 November to 30 December 2026, on the wine route between Rouffach and Colmar. The drive takes a few minutes, and pairing a village market in the evening with Colmar during the day is perfectly manageable.

In December the vineyards hold several village markets that do not all open on the same dates. Riquewihr and Kaysersberg run from 27 November to 20 December 2026, Eguisheim from 27 November to 30 December, Munster from 20 November to 26 December. Ribeauvillé stands apart with its re-enacted medieval market, over two weekends only, from 5 to 13 December 2026: period currency, encampments and old trades, the only one of its kind in Alsace.

A point of method: these dates are those published by the municipalities and by the regional tourist board. They may differ from those repeated by listings sites, which sometimes carry a year over. Always check the official source before pinning a trip to a particular weekend, especially for the shorter markets.

December is the month when the difference tells most. You come back soaked, laden, often late, and the apartment gives what a room does not: somewhere to dry the coats, a real kitchen for a breakfast with no fixed time, and a living room to sit in together. For a family or two couples, the gap with two hotel rooms quickly becomes clear.

Our apartments in Turckheim and Rouffach have self check-in from 4 pm: the instructions are sent before the stay, nobody is waiting for you at a set hour, and arriving after an evening at the market poses no problem. Check-out is at 11 am, unless a late check-out is taken. The rates shown are the ones you pay, with no platform commission, the local tourist tax being calculated and included in the total before payment.