Amboise or Blois?
 

Any recommendations on which town is the better base for taking a tour to a couple of chateaus? We will be arriving by train.

Know any good B&Bs in either place?

We found an inexpensive hotel in Blois called IBIS City Centre on Rue Porte Cote. Anyone stayed there?

Thanks!

You will love the Loire Valley. I would definitely
pick Blois over Amboise. Besides the beautiful
chateau, Blois is a lovely town with lots of nice
cafes, restaurants and good shopping. There is a
great gift shop for limoges just as you come out
of the castle into the plaza, a few shops to the
left; seemed reasonable too. We stayed at the
Mercure Blois Centre, a very nice hotel chain
throughout France. Don't miss Chambord and
Chenonceaux Chateax. Also, the gardens at Villandry
are spectacular. Have a great time!

I definitely second the recommendation of Blois for
a base rather than Amboise. Blois is a beautiful
little town that is enjoyable in and of itself and
has several interesting things to see other than
the chateau. Aside from that, the train station is
in a MUCH more convenient location in Blois -- in
Amboise (which is a larger town) it's quite a hike
from city center across the river to the train
station as I recall. I haven't done it, but I believe
Blois is known as a tourist center for chateau trips
and thus there will be readily available bus tour
excursions from Blois that you can find out about
once you get there (from your hotel/tourist office).
So you will not have to depend solely on the train
to visit chateaux -- a few are easy this way (i.e.,
Blois, Amboise, Chenonceaux) but some others are
not (e.g., Chambord). There are probably such tours
out of Amboise, also, but I'd still go for Blois.
Blois actually has a pretty good WEB site for
lots of information -- I didn't keep its URL, but
I've looked at it and you should be able to find it
easily with a good search engine.