I haven't decided if I'm going to make a trip from Paris to the Loire Valley or not, but wanted to get some thoughts on lodging. We're not over the top, but we're not budget either. I prefer 3 star and above I guess as having our own bathroom is key and having a lounge would be great too. I don't even know what cities/towns are in what is consdired the Valley, so I'm in need of any help you can offer!

thanks folks.

What part of the Loire Valley interests you in lodging terms, and what's your price range? Do you mean you'd like a hotel with a lounge for residents or a lounge of your own?

Do a search via Google for the Loire Valley tourist offices; that will get you started on where you'd like to base. How long you plan to stay would also be a factor.

mdtravel:

If you have only a couple of days in the Loire, I would suggest you base yourself in Amboise. The Lion d'Or is a nice hotel there, or the Choiseul if you want to stretch the budget a bit.

If you have 5 or 6 days, I'd suggest you spend half in Amboise and the rest in Angers or Saumur, to get a sense of the two "ends" of the area.

No matter what you decide, if you are heading for the Loire, check out a good guidebook to see what is there for you to see and do.

Hi,
A nice one I can recommend is in Chenonceaux (where you will definitely want to go se the chateau)called Hotel Le Bon Laboureur.I went a few years ago and the place was nice, beds comfy and it has a high quality restaurant. There is info on the internet.

Mike

Will you have a car?

I was just doing a search looking for Alistair Sawday recommended places (we've never gone wrong using his guides) and hapened upon this. Looks pretty nice to me, and you notice it is very affordable. Maybe you only want hotels though. Personally, we prefer these more intimate places. This site is in French but I'm sure you can figure it out even if you don't read French.
http://lefrene.free.fr/p1002001.htm

Ther are a lot of good threadsss on this - - and I have posted on several of them about Chateau d'Artigny (probably 4 star) in Montbazon - - here's one of them:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...mp;tid=1377029

I bet that if you search on words like Montbazon or Rochecotte or Choiseul you'll get lots of rave stuff to peruse through.

Best wishes,

Rex

You might want to check the Logis de France chain of hotels. There is one in Fontevraud that we've always wanted to visit although we haven't yet. Go to http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/ (the Logis de France web site) and type in FONTEVRAUD in the search window. You'll get photos of the front, a room and the restaurant. You will have a private bath. It's pretty unusual these days for hotel rooms to not have their own bath.

The hotel web site is http://www.fontevraud.net/pagesanglais but it's not as useful as the Logis web site. We've often reserved on the Logis web site and have never had a problem.

You can also use their map search to find hotels.

Enjoy your trip.

I also heartily recommend the Logis de France website. The 2 to 3 chimney hotels are around 50 euros for a double without breakfast. Almost all rooms have private baths. The hotels are small and charming. The restaurants are usually excellent and specialize in local cuisine. We have stayed at Logis de France rated hotels in Chambord, Chenenceau (three different ones), and other smaller towns throughout France.

As another person said, Amboise is a very good base for seeing the Loire Valley. Lovely town and good tourist office. If "atmosphere" is not your concern, if you want comfort, and IF you have a car then there is a lovely Novotel out of Amboise is a nice rather open location on a hill. You can usually get pretty good rates at a chain hotel like this.You can then get day tours to the chateaux from the tourist office downtown Amboise, or drive yourself if you have a car. Just a good map will take you to them, and there is always a good parking lot. There is a lot of walking involved once you get to the chateaux. We spent a night in the Novotel and it was very comfortable, but not as do-able without a car. The other hotels mentioned sound beautiful and atmospheric and "French"
but there are sometimes many steps, if that is a concern. I guess we should get your answer to the "car" question before answering.

Two main questions here: Will you have a car? And, how many days/nights will you be staying?

If you are traveling by rail, stay in or around Tours. Not my favorite place, but accessible by train.

If you have a car, but only 2 days or so, I agree with the Amboise suggestion.

If you have 5 or 6 days and a car, I suggest something closer to the Chinon area. That way you can access points west (like Fontvraud, Saumur and Angers) as well as points east (Blois, Amboise, Chenonceaux, Azay, Chambourd, etc.) with absolute ease.

We stayed at the Manoir de la Giraudiaire, out in the vineyards near Chinon. It was a solid 3-star value, and the owner spoke excellent English (not necessarily a given in that region).

If one of your stops is Chinon, I highly reccommend Hotel Diderot. Lovely, quiet place, nice rooms, very friendly staff and within walking distance of town. Inexpensive too!

http://www.hoteldiderot.com/