What is the best way to travel from Paris to Amboise? Train and then rent a car?

What are your criteria for being the "best?" Your objectives and constraints should guide the choice of means (train, car, etc.)

Probably the fastest, easiest, and most economical way from Paris to Amboise is to take the train although you'd have to do a price comparison and define your criteria for "best." For my money, for a short trip such as Paris to Amboise, I'd take the train.

You don't say how many people are traveling. For instance, it may be more cost effective to rent a car if there are 4 people; for 1 person it's probably more sensible to take the train.

If you rent a car does someone in your party know how to drive a manual transmission? Does someone in your party know how to read a map to navigate? Do you know where the parking places near your destination are in Amboise?

If you're only going from Paris to Amboise and are considering taking the train why would you need a car once you get there?

Are you returning to Paris? Is this a day trip? Do you need a car to continue on?

People who give complete information about their needs usually get more definitive answers.

If you are touring the Loire for a few days, you will need a car there.

For me, "best" is controlling my own schedule. So I would get the car in Paris and drive.

When we went frpm Paris to the Loire, we picked up our AutoEurope booked car at the Gare du Nord, got on the ring road/expressway which encircles Paris and easily drove to Onzain near Amboise.

You can easily, VERY easily take the train as far as Bl;ois and rent the car there. If you opt for Avis there is a rental desk inside the Blois train station.

The drive to Amboise is an easy one.

I cannot make the decision of which might better suit your needs but the options are:

1. Car rental - my choice unless you are arriving the same day from an all-night flight. Amboise is too far to drive without proper rest.

2. Train from Montparnasse - but you'll most likely need to double back on another train from Tours or more likely St. Pierre des Corps as these trains are all TGVs which do not stop at Amboise.

3. Train from Austerlitz - the Corail trains are slower than TGVs but may get you to your destination faster as these use the Amboise train station.

If your decision involves cost comparisons, advance purchase train tickets are significantly cheaper and are available on both the TGV trains from Montparnasse and the Corail Intercite trains from Austerlitz. PREM fares to Amboise are about 15 euros.

Sorry I did not give more details. My husband and I are staying in Paris 4 nights and then going to stay at Manoir St. Thomas in Amboise for 3 nights. Hoping to visit Chateaux and vineyards. I could use advice on what vineyards to visit too. My husband wants to take a train and I would like to drive. From what I hear we will need a car once we get to Amboise. We can drive manual transmission. But are there not automatic transmissions available? We could bring our Garmin but the French map download is $100.00. Maybe it is worth it.

You can book an automatic transmission but there is no guarantee that one will be available when you pick up the car. Most European car rentals are manual.

If you need a car after arriving in Amboise to tour the area I would just rent one in Paris and drive rather than taking the train.

I've never used a GPS so can't advise you on that. You can go to viamichelin.com and print out detailed driving directions and get a good Michelin map for the area for about $15.00. There are mixed reviews on this board on using a GPS. Do a search on Garmin to see what others say about using Garmin in Europe.

Also" best" for us means most relaxing and least time consuming>

I used a Garmin in Italy. Few notes.

I compared loading a European map to my existing GPS or buy a whole new unit with a European map. The GPS with European maps are now routinely discounted deeply, so the price difference was not significant. I bought a new unit.

Garmin's map loading process is very time consuming. After I got a unit with the European map, I updated the map within their free update period. The process took about 4 hrs and frequently need to attend to the downloading process.

Also, the position acquisition seemed to take longer in Europe when I needed it the most - when I am in narrow streets surrounded by buildings.

<< Also" best" for us means most relaxing and least time consuming >>

Since money is not a factor and both the train and car take approximately the same amount of time from Paris to Amboise, you only need to determine which method is most relaxing for you.

A big advantage of taking a car, is that you can plan a stop on the way. We stopped in Chartres for the afternoon when we went to Amboise. Wow, Chartres was a great choice.

2 years ago we went from Paris to Amboise. We took the TGV from Paris to Tours (St Pierre des Corps), and rented a car from the SPdC TGV station. My husband hates driving, so this way, while we had to pay for our TGV tickets, he didn't have to deal with the hassle and traffic of driving from Paris to Amboise. Plus, we got PREMS tickets on the TGV, so the extra cost of the train tickets was acceptable to us.

Picking up a car at a rental office near your hotel will save your paying the train station pickup surcharge of over 30€. As you will need a car upon arrival, renting a car in Paris makes a great deal of sense and driving out of Paris is a very simple affair but plan an exit from the rental office in advance.

Usually you'll look for a wide avenue from near the office to the Périphérique (the circular highway around central Paris) and orbit around to the southern side taking the A6 exit to Orléans.

That's all there is to it.