Loire Valley: Tours & Tickets

This is a must see if you have not been to any castles. Although it is a long day my only thought would be your itinerary be more specific about what you should bring and how long the drive is. Also how long the tour is as they guide you through each castle. Definitely need good walking shoes/sneakers as you traverse thru uneven paths and cobblestone walkways. It would have been best to provide lunch vs wine tasting especially having spent almost $500 USD for 2 adults. Other than the tour, bus ride and transportation to/from our hotel extremely early in the morning, I would expected a sandwich would have been the right thing to do rather than some wine sips and some tapas/deserts to cleanse your pallots. They did stop for a break to use a rest room and buy yourselves something to eat but by no means was it good food. The tour was good, very interesting but the ride long.. not worth $500.

The tour was very well organised and a most interesting experience. We were picked up on time from the Loire Tourist Office in Tour, and taken on a picturesque drive to our first stop at the Alain Robert vineyards. We were met there by the wife of the owner who gave us an interesting insight into the growing and harvesting cycle. We then went up to the higher vineyards and sampled Vouvray wines in the beautiful countryside; wonderful! Next we went on to see the bottling process. Finally we visited the labyrinthine limestone cellars of the Bredif winery; an amazing experience! Our guide from the winery gave us a well informed and entertaining tour, which culminated in a wine tasting accompanied by tasty snacks. The 4 hour tour exceeded expectations and made us feel that we would like to spend more time exploring this region and it's wonderful countryside and viniculture.

Our experience on this one day tour of the Chateau region was outstanding. A little pricey as tours go, The guide that took us out for the day, Vincent, was excellent. Our group was English language and Vincent, who grew up in the region, was able to communicate very well and answer our many questions. He was an example of someone who takes his job seriously and has done much studying about French history as it relates to the Castles. This made our experience very interesting and Informative. He has a great personality and knows how to make the day enjoyable. This tour also included a wonderful hot luncheon meal at a local cafe! I highly recommend France Intense and Get your Guide.

The pickup and ride to Chambord went smoothly and we arrived at the castle before it became busy. The audio-video guides explained the rooms as we walked through them, but we found ourselves hurrying to finish by our 11am rendezvous. The ride to lunch took us through beautiful countryside along the Loire river and we enjoyed lunch at a restaurant in the caves in the hillside. We finished with a visit to a winery in Vouvrey where we walked through the sparkling wine cellars and enjoyed tasting several styles of wine. We thoroughly enjoyed the day

Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable of the history surrounding the chateaus we were scheduled to see on our tour. He kept the drives between each destination entertaining and really knew the history of the countryside and each town we passed through. I was so intrigued to learn more at each stop. I would recommend this tour to anyone considering it! I am so glad I chose to spend my day on this tour and got to see the beauty that was Chambord and Chenonceau and the accompanying wine tastings.