After the Marathon de Colmar: Basel

The Route: Colmar → Mulhouse → Basel → EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg Logistics: SNCF train from Colmar to Mulhouse, then onward to Basel SBB. A single change, roughly an hour of travel in total. Marathon Month: September Duration: 3 nights

Colmar station ──(~30 mins SNCF)──> Mulhouse ──(~30 mins SNCF/SBB)──> Basel
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              EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (BSL) ◄──(bus line 50, ~25 mins)──┘

Marathon de Colmar finishes at Place Rapp after 42.195 km through Alsace's wine villages, and Colmar's position on the regional rail network makes a genuine cross-border extension into Switzerland realistic rather than aspirational, without ever needing a car. September in Basel sits at the tail end of the Rhine's open-water swimming season, the river still warm enough on a good afternoon for locals to float downstream with a waterproof bag for their clothes, though by late September this depends entirely on the specific week's weather rather than being guaranteed the way it is in July. The train from Colmar runs via Mulhouse, a single change, with the whole journey to Basel taking around an hour combined; both legs run on regular SNCF and SBB regional services with no advance reservation required.

En Route: Mulhouse

Mulhouse sits roughly halfway between Colmar and Basel and is worth breaking the journey for rather than passing through. The Cité de l'Automobile, built around the Schlumpf brothers' private collection, is the largest car museum in the world by most counts, with several hundred vehicles including a run of Bugattis that alone would justify the stop; entry is approximately €19, and the museum sits a short walk from Mulhouse's main station. A couple of hours here fits comfortably into the journey between trains without requiring an overnight stay, though anyone who wants longer can find straightforward accommodation near the station rather than needing a specific address booked in advance.

Nights One to Three: Basel

Basel's old town sits directly on the Rhine, and the primary recovery asset here is the riverbank itself: flat, paved promenades run along both banks for kilometres, connected by bridges with no significant incline, and by four small cable-guided ferries, the Fähri, that cross the river on tension wires rather than engines, a fare of around CHF 1.80 each way. A slow loop along either bank, crossing by ferry rather than bridge, covers the city's geography without asking anything of legs still recovering from a marathon two or three days earlier.

Basel Münster, the red sandstone cathedral above the river, is free to enter, and its terrace, the Pfalz, gives a flat viewpoint over the Rhine without needing to climb the tower itself. The Kunstmuseum Basel, one of the oldest public art collections in the world, sits a short walk from the old town, entry around CHF 26, and suits an afternoon when the legs would rather sit in front of paintings than keep moving.

Hotel Krafft, directly on the Rhine in Kleinbasel with rooms looking back across the water at the old town, puts guests within a couple of minutes of the flattest riverside walking in the city. Der Teufelhof Basel, a boutique hotel built around contemporary art installations in the old town itself, works well for a stay with more to look at inside the building as well as outside it.

For dinner, the Restaurant at the Kunsthalle Basel serves a seasonal menu in a converted 19th-century building a short walk from the old town, a reliable choice after a day spent mostly on foot. For something more traditionally Swiss, rösti and other regional plates are widely available at restaurants around Marktplatz, close to both recommended hotels.

Basel's own tram network makes a second recovery-friendly option available alongside the riverside walk: the trams run flat and frequent through the old town, and a short-hop ticket covers most journeys a visitor staying centrally would need across the three days, useful on a morning when the legs would rather ride than walk the full length of the Rhine.

Getting Home

The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (BSL, also known by its French code MLH) is unusual among European airports in having two separate terminal exits, one leading into Switzerland and one into France, depending on which country a traveller is flying to or from. Bus line 50 runs from central Basel to the airport in around 25 minutes; check in advance which side of the terminal a specific flight departs from, since the two exits are treated as genuinely separate border crossings rather than a single shared arrivals hall.