Our group of 5 (ranging from 19-28) will be going on a day trip to the Loire Valley from Paris. I found a tour group, that was recommended on this site, called Tourevasion which meets you at the train station in Tours.

They either have half a day tours(14 euros per person) or full day tours (41 euros per person), not including lunch and entrance fees.

But, myself and another person from the group has been to Europe once before, but never the Loire Valley. We planned everything ourselves which brings me to my question for all you fodorites.

Should we just do the day trip on our own? How far is a chateaux like CHENONCEAU from the train station - would we be able to take a taxi to the chateaux?

Or should we do the half day tour with the company, and spend the rest of the day together in the town? Would this be feasible... is the town (Tours) nearby and would we actually be able to walk around and sightsee on our own?

What does the price of the tour include? It sounds like just transportation. If that is the case, you might want to look into the trains. The train station for Chenonceau is RIGHT THERE at the entrance of the chateau grounds. Tours is about 30 mins by train to Chenenceaux.

Coldwar,

On the website, the price seems to include transportation and a guide, not entrace fees or lunch.

Did you mean that the train station is outside the Chenonceau chateaux? So could I take a train from the Tours station right to the Chateaux?

I trying to figure out the easiest way to do this daytrip, but also how to make our money worth it also.

Cityrama and ParisVision offer Loire Valley tours via minibus. It's pricey something like 170 euro more or less but includes pickup/dropoff to and from your Paris hotel, entrance fees, and lunch. Only three chateaux are involved but Chenonceaux and Chambord are usually included.
Sounds expensive but I guess with the cost of transportation, convenience, and lunch it's worth it.

I checked my guidebooks again and they say there are trains from Tours to Chenonceaux. I tried to go on the SNCF web site to get specifics but was have technical problems. You can probably and see what you can find. www.sncf.com. Good luck.

At 174 euros per person I would most definitely NOT take that tour for 5 people. Yikes! That's almost a thousand US dollars.

You can see Loire chateaux by train, but you have to pick and choose them. For example coldwar is right about Chenonceau. You can get off the train, pick up a rock, throw it and hit the ticket office at the chateau.

Others that involve less than a mile from train station to chateau that I've visited are Angers, Saumur, Chinon, Amboise and Blois. One that is definitely not near a train station is Chambord. So if you really want to see Chambord you'll want to take a tour with transportation included.

As far as getting to someplace like Chenonceau, use www.sncf.com. In the upper left hand corner is a little flag to put it in English. You can type in your date and times and see what schedules are. If you put in Paris to Chenonceaux it routes you through Vierzon.

I put Paris to Tours to get a one and a quarter hour TGV trip from Gare Montparnasse to Tours departing at 7:20 and arriving at Tours 8:26. You can leave Tours at 9:14 and arrive Chenonceaux at 9:39. As an aside the castle is Chenonceau, the town is Chenonceaux (with an 'x'.)

More FYI, Tours has a TGV station at St Pierre des Corps. There is a shuttle train (I think the French word is navette?) that runs all day long between St Pierre and Tours station proper taking 5 or 6 minutes.

I explained the Tours bit, hopefully clearly enough, because you'll really want to save time by taking the TGV there then going on to which ever chateau you want to see. For several of the Loire towns you might end up transferring through Tours.

I spent a couple of nights in Tours the city in Spring 2001. You can walk from the train station to the old part of town and see some beautiful half-timbered buildings and the impressive cathedral. Tours really doesn't have a castle anymore, what's left was converted into an aquarium so I didn't bother. They do have a nice little museum of art and the gemmail museum is incredible. I've never seen such pretty glass art.

Another possibility is Amboise. It's two hours by rail departing from Paris' Gare Austerlitz, some with a change in Orleans, some direct. It has an historical castle that dominates the town, Da Vinci's Clos de Luce where he spent his last few years, the enchanted house museum and overall a very pretty little town to spend the day in. The Clos is about a fairly level 1 mile walk from the train station. The chateau is closer.

One last thought. You might be able to buy cheaper "prem" fares 60 days in advance. I don't like to do that with day trips. I like to check the weather first. If it's a rainy day I'd rather stay in Paris, see a museum and go the next non-rainy day.

Thanks to both Coldwar and indytravel. Since 3 people from our group have never been abroad, I thinking that the group tour might be the best, and it's only 14 euros per person, without entrance fees.

Indytravel, I was actually thinking of taking the TGV from Paris to Tours...but is the TGV in another station not in tours?

Just found out some really good info on Tours on frommers.

Indytravel, you mentioned that you stayed in Tours. The info I found said the area near the train station has a bit of shops and other interesting things...is the city on the scale of Florence, where is is quite small to walk around?

My mother will be visiting shortly and I'd like to take her to see Chenonceau. It would probably be a long day trip from Brussels rather than an overnight stay.
Where would you recommend having lunch--in Tours? Chenonceau?

The area right near the train station in Tours does have lots of shops and eateries, but you'll probably want to head to the old town (Vieux Tours) if you're interested in sightseeing. The city centre is small and easily walkable, and it would only take around 15 minutes to reach the old part of town from the station.
The Rue Nationale running north-south is the main shopping street. West of this is the Place Plumereau, the heart of the city's old town, while to the east, the rue Colbert has some nice shops and old buildings.

Thanks! We would probably take a cab to the Place Plumereau.
It sounds like a long day, but my parents are the type who think nothing of driving 650 miles in a single day on vacation, so a few hours on the train each way will be a piece of cake.
We'll probably catch the 8:40 from Brussels, which will give us plenty of time to get to Tours and see Chenonceau.

why not rent a car (or van) and just drive it? as I recall, that area is only about a 1.5 hour drive from Paris, and if you have to rent the car for say three days or whatever (sometimes they have minimums) you could just make a few days out of it and really see some of the area. even if you spend 400 bucks on a car, that's only 80 each plus gas. and you can get to where you are going without waiting for public transport.

pick it up at the airport and head west. or even take a train well out of town, pick it up there and go (to avoid the peripherique, which isn't a big deal if you've driven in DC or NYC.)

or, just take a regular train, Paris to Chenonceau?

just FYI, Chinon is fairly far west, at least a 3 hour drive if I recall. not exactly a day trip. even the closer ones, would be a FULL DAY trip.

Hi anna,

You might find this site helpful

http://www.chenonceau.com/indexENG.html

Anna, the TGV stops in St Pierre des Corps. It's 5 or 6 minutes to the Tours train station by a shuttle train that runs frequently all day long. As already mentioned Tours is an easy city to walk.

BTilke, I'd have lunch at Chenonceaux in the chateau or the town. I had an excellent fish in beurre blanc and a great wine from the chateau's vineyard in the Chenonceau chateau restaurant. It has a pretty terrace though there's not a view of the chateau from it. There's a cafeteria-style snack bar too that I didn't use.

I also ate at Hostellerie de Roy in the tiny town, and I do mean tiny. You can walk end to end in 5 minutes. I remember this meal because it was the first time I ever had rillettes as a starter. The food was very good and the dining room was done in that rustic French style.

May 03, I took the minibus tour with ParisVision and was picked up at my hotel at 7 am. There were only 3 people in the van. The tour was wonderful and we saw 3/4 chateaus and got in immediately, had a wonderfyl lunch and visited one or two other towns...and returned back to hotel at 6 pm. I was tired at the end of the day and thought it was worth the money (when I find the brochure, I will let you know the price)..then took train to Beaune and visited the vineyards and Dijon...so it can be done either way. Also took the tour to Monets garden and loved that tour. Have fun.