Colmar scavenger hunt
The Place de l'Ancienne Douane is a picturesque medieval square in Colmar, anchored by the historic Koïfhus and surrounded by colorful timber-framed buildings. At its heart sits the Schwendi Fountain, featuring a bronze statue by Bartholdi that celebrates the local legend of Alsatian wine history.
La Petite Venise is a charming historic quarter where traditional Alsatian houses line the peaceful canals once used by market gardeners to transport their goods.
La Petite Venise is a fairytale district where vibrant half-timbered houses reflect in the Lauch River, creating Colmar's most iconic and romantic landscape.
St. Martin's Church is a magnificent example of Gothic architecture in Colmar, featuring a striking spire and a colorful tile roof that towers over the city's historic center.
The Musée Bartholdi is situated in the birthplace of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the visionary sculptor best known for designing the Statue of Liberty. This museum showcases an extensive collection of his personal artifacts, original sketches, and grand scale models within a historic house that reflects the artistic soul of Colmar.
Colmar scavenger hunt
The Place de l'Ancienne Douane is a picturesque medieval square in Colmar, anchored by the historic Koïfhus and surrounded by colorful timber-framed buildings. At its heart sits the Schwendi Fountain, featuring a bronze statue by Bartholdi that celebrates the local legend of Alsatian wine history.
La Petite Venise is a charming historic quarter where traditional Alsatian houses line the peaceful canals once used by market gardeners to transport their goods.
La Petite Venise is a fairytale district where vibrant half-timbered houses reflect in the Lauch River, creating Colmar's most iconic and romantic landscape.
St. Martin's Church is a magnificent example of Gothic architecture in Colmar, featuring a striking spire and a colorful tile roof that towers over the city's historic center.
The Musée Bartholdi is situated in the birthplace of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the visionary sculptor best known for designing the Statue of Liberty. This museum showcases an extensive collection of his personal artifacts, original sketches, and grand scale models within a historic house that reflects the artistic soul of Colmar.

Colmar Scavenger Hunt and Self-Guided Tour

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Explore the city at your own pace with a self-guided experience.
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Make a day of itInteractive guides by World City Trail, delivered with your tickets.

What is a city guide?

Your own guide to Colmar on your phone: hand-picked places, each with why to go, what to order and a practical tip.

  • Tick places off
  • Your own notes
  • One tap to Maps
  • Open now, near me
  • Works offline
  • Print it or save as PDF
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  • No time limit – use your ticket whenever you want
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Included: your personal Trail Map with every city you finish, the kilometres you walk and your flag collection. See an example →

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Everything you need for a flexible self-guided city experience

Explore the city at your own pace

✔ Discover hidden gems & highlights
✔ Enjoy a flexible self-guided experience
✔ Explore freely with no schedule
✔ Perfect for couples, students, companies, friends & families

How your city experience works

✔ Instant ticket purchase
✔ Easy access via the World City Trail app
✔ Quick setup with your booking details
✔ Start anytime and explore freely
✔ Pause and resume anytime

Why travelers choose this tour

✔ Instant access after purchase
✔ Optional AI voice narration — listen instead of read
✔ Discover top attractions & food spots
✔ Customize your route anytime

Half-timbered houses and Bartholdi fountains: Colmar as a riddle trail

The Colmar scavenger hunt is a self-guided city game you play on your phone: you walk through the old town, solve a riddle at each of 10 landmarks and unlock the stories behind them. Only about 33 minutes of the game are spent walking, 2.7 km through compact lanes and along the Lauch, so its 2 hours leave plenty of room for looking, legends and a coffee, whenever you start.

Highlights include St Martin's Church, the Unterlinden Museum, the canals of Little Venice and the Fishmongers' Quarter, the Old Customs House and the fountains by Auguste Bartholdi, the Colmar-born sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. The compact centre of half-timbered houses is easy to explore on foot, and the riddles make you look closely at façades, statues and signs.

  • Durationabout 2 hours
  • Walkingabout 33 min · 2.7 km
  • Stops10
  • LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch

Riddles between St Martin's and the Lauch

A tiled roof, a barrel and a customs house

Every stop sets a riddle you crack by looking: the coloured tiles on the roof of St Martin's, Jean Roesselmann on the fountain that bears his name, the Koïfhus of 1480 where goods were once taxed. A sharp eye and a little logic do the trick, and no knowledge of Alsace is needed.

Three fountains by the sculptor of Liberty

Auguste Bartholdi, born in Colmar in 1834, left his mark all along the route: he made the fountain of Admiral Bruat in the Champ de Mars, the Roesselmann Fountain and the Schwendi Fountain in front of the Koïfhus, and the last stop is his birthplace, now the Bartholdi Museum. The audio narration fills in the legends, from Roesselmann's barrel to the Tokay vine.

2.7 km through the old town

The whole walk is about 33 minutes over 2.7 km, mostly flat and often on cobbles, from the Unterlinden quarter down to the water. Google Maps leads the way through the half-timbered streets.

A winstub, a boat, a pause

No clock runs during the game, so you can stop at a winstub, take a boat along the Lauch or come back another day to finish. In December, when Christmas markets fill the old town, the game makes a welcome break from the stalls.

See the route and attractions →

How it works

  1. Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
  2. Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
  3. Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.

Colmar's riddle trail: who it suits

Visitors on the Alsace wine route

Many people see Colmar on a trip through Alsace, and a game of about 2 hours over 2.7 km takes in its church, museums, canals and fountains before an afternoon among the vineyards. The riddles point you to details on half-timbered façades that are easy to miss.

Families who like legends

Children love the story of the provost who, it is said, slipped into the town hidden in a barrel, the boats gliding through Little Venice and the house of the man who made the Statue of Liberty. One adult in each young team keeps an eye on the traffic.

Friends and clubs on a weekend away

Teams of up to 5 players, each on a separate phone, can set off from St Martin's at intervals and meet again by the Bartholdi Museum. The old town's public squares and quays are the whole playing field.

Good to know

  • Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
  • No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
  • Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
  • Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
  • Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
  • Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.

The route: St Martin's, the Bartholdi fountains, Little Venice and the sculptor's birthplace

10 stops · about 33 min walking · start: St Martin's Church · finish: Bartholdi Museum

The hunt starts at St Martin's Church in the old town and heads north to the Unterlinden Museum and the Municipal Theatre, then south through the Parc du Champ de Mars to the Roesselmann Fountain. From there you follow the Lauch through Little Venice and the Fishmongers' Quarter to the Old Customs House, then continue past St Matthew's Church and finish at the Bartholdi Museum. Every answer is on a façade, a fountain or a statue in the street, so no ticket desk interrupts the game, and if Little Venice suits you better as a starting point, the app will open there and reorder the rest of the route.

Open the route map ↗

  1. St Martin's Church

    1St Martin's ChurchStart

    Colmar's largest church was built in Gothic style from 1234 to around 1365 and is often called the cathedral, although it is a collegiate church. Look up at its 71-metre tower: a fire in 1572 destroyed the spire, and the Renaissance cap added the following year is still there, above a roof of colourful tiles.

  2. Unterlinden Museum

    2Unterlinden Museum

    The museum occupies a 13th-century convent of Dominican nuns and opened to the public in 1853. Its most famous work is the Isenheim Altarpiece, painted by Matthias Grünewald in 1512–1516, and since 2015 the museum has a new wing designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron.

  3. Municipal Theatre

    3Municipal Theatre

    Colmar's municipal theatre was built in 1847–1849 by the architect Louis-Michel Boltz on part of the old Unterlinden convent and opened in March 1849. Behind its classical five-bay façade is a rounded auditorium with three tiers of galleries in the Italian tradition.

  4. Parc du Champ de Mars

    4Parc du Champ de Mars

    This large, shady park lies just outside the old town. In it stands the fountain of Admiral Armand Joseph Bruat, a naval officer born in Colmar, made by Auguste Bartholdi and inaugurated in 1864; its sandstone figures of the continents were destroyed in 1940, and the bronze admiral has stood on a new basin since 1958.

  5. Roesselmann Fountain

    5Roesselmann Fountain

    Auguste Bartholdi made this fountain on Place des Six Montagnes Noires, inaugurated in 1888, in honour of Jean Roesselmann, the provost who died defending Colmar in 1262. According to legend, Roesselmann slipped back into the town hidden in a barrel, and Bartholdi is said to have given him the face of the mayor of the time.

  6. Little Venice

    6Little Venice

    Little Venice (Petite Venise) is the stretch of the Lauch river where colourful half-timbered houses stand right at the water's edge. From the bridges you get the classic view of the houses reflected in the river, and small flat-bottomed boats take visitors along the water.

  7. Fishmongers' Quarter (Quai de la Poissonnerie)

    7Fishmongers' Quarter (Quai de la Poissonnerie)

    The Quai de la Poissonnerie takes its name from the fishermen and boatmen who lived and worked here, organised in a powerful guild, and sold their catch beside the Lauch. Its timber-framed houses were restored in the late 20th century and are now among the most photographed in Colmar.

  8. Old Customs House (Koïfhus)

    8Old Customs House (Koïfhus)

    The Old Customs House, also called the Koïfhus, was built in 1480 as the place where goods passing through Colmar were checked and taxed. In front of it stands another Bartholdi fountain from 1898, honouring Lazarus von Schwendi, who according to legend brought the Tokay vine to Alsace.

  9. St Matthew's Church

    9St Matthew's Church

    St Matthew's Church is the only surviving part of a Franciscan convent from around 1290, with the wide, plain nave typical of the mendicant orders. It has been Protestant since 1575; in 1715 the choir was walled off for Catholic use, and the dividing wall was only removed in 1987.

  10. Bartholdi Museum

    10Bartholdi MuseumFinish

    The museum occupies the house where Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty in New York, was born in 1834. The family home was left to the town and opened as a museum in 1922, and in the courtyard stands his bronze group Les Grands Soutiens du monde.

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    Cette activit? nous a permis de connaitre la ville sans oublier aucun site important. Cependant, l’utilisation de l’application n’est pas tr?s bien expliqu?e et nous avons eu du mal au d?but. Les ?nigmes sont compliqu?es pour des enfants, il faut des adultes pour aider. Int?ressant malgr? tout.

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    We took so many photos. Colmar is a beautiful city. We were there for an excursion with my co – students and we had an amazing time. Each one of us had the chance to solve a riddle and show his/her strength!

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Frequently asked questions

Is two hours enough for the Colmar hunt and a glass of wine afterwards?

Yes: the game takes about 2 hours, of which only 33 minutes are walking over 2.7 km and 10 stops, so there is time left for a winstub or a boat trip on the Lauch.

Which corner of Colmar holds the first riddle, and which the last?

Riddle one waits beside the collegiate church of St Martin, which locals often call the cathedral, and riddle ten at the house where Auguste Bartholdi was born, now the Bartholdi Museum. Both are in the old town, a few minutes apart, and if you would rather begin in Little Venice, choose it in the app.

Will a guide meet us outside St Martin's?

Nobody is waiting, and you pick the moment. The booking reference arrives by email; once it is in the World City Trail app, Colmar's riddles open whenever you are ready, on a quiet morning or between visits to the Christmas markets. Every player needs a ticket, and each can follow the game on a personal phone.

Do any Colmar museums or boats on the way cost money?

The Unterlinden Museum, home of the Isenheim Altarpiece, and the Bartholdi Museum each have their own tickets, as do the boat trips through Little Venice. The riddles need none of them, as every answer is out in the streets and squares.

Why do children like the Colmar hunt?

Because Colmar looks like a picture book, and the riddles send them looking for a man said to have hidden in a barrel, the boats on the Lauch and the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. Children play with an adult on their team; cobbles and kerbs make the route unsuitable for wheelchairs, and pushchairs bump along.

Are Colmar's riddles available in both German and French?

Both are available, as are English, Italian, Spanish and Dutch, and each phone can run a different one, which helps when a group mixes visitors from both sides of the Rhine. Each player picks one in the World City Trail app before riddle number one.

Is the Colmar hunt suitable for a works outing or a club trip?

It is: everyone needs a ticket, teams have up to five players, the starts at St Martin's can be staggered by a few minutes, and the Bartholdi Museum makes the meeting point at the end. The old town's lanes and quays are the venue, so no hall needs hiring.

What should we bring to Colmar?

Comfortable shoes for the cobbles, something warm in the Alsace winter and, for each team, a charged phone with mobile data. Pack a power bank too, and earphones so the audio narration carries over the bustle of Little Venice.

Your first Colmar riddle waits at St Martin's Church

Order tickets online, one per player; the confirmation email carries your booking reference. On the day, look for the tiled roof of St Martin's in the old town and open the first riddle beneath its tower.

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