can anyone reccommned a companay/tour that leaves from Paris and visits Chambord and Chenonceau with an English speaking guide that doesnt break the bank? I have found many on tripadvisor - but cant tell which to pick.

https://www.viator.com/tours/Paris/S...g/d479-7249P10

https://www.bluefox.travel/paris/loi...teaux-day-trip

I very highly recommend Blue Fox. I did this recently and it was an amazing day. Worth the price, yes. The links above are the same tour, a little less booking direct.

Wow! 210 pp is def expensive! I dont know if I can swing that x4.

Hoping for some other suggestions as well.

You could take TGV to Tours in an hour with cheap tickets of 29 euros each way if book far in advance - and hook up with minibus tours from Tours' station to hit those chateaux - they run about 90 euros/peson - www.acco-dispo.com is one that is typical of several. For train info check www.oui.sncf; www.seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts - check for what to expect on trains and tips on booking.

I saw some tours for about 130 euros pp - which would be about what palenQ suggestion costs - but wondering if they are any good......

What PalenQ suggests is what we did, oh so many years ago. We may have also used www.acco-dispo.com as well. (At least, it sounds familiar!) The tour ended up being ideal for us. In the mini-van the guide gave us history lessons, but when we got to our destination we were on our own until a certain time.

were admission fees included with ACCO-DISPO and similar tours or not? Ask that question on any tour.

You could always rent a car - cheapest way probably - rentals on southern edge of Paris have good access to autoroutes to Loire - get off at Blois for Chambord and do lovely back roads to Chenonceau and back to autoroute and Paris. Just study route a bit and really could be fun- stop at a small town for late lunch - folks may be afarid of going alone but really could be loads of fun too - an adventure of being a traveler not just a tourist.

I booked chateaux tours with TOURAINE EVASION http://www.tourevasion.com/ in 2014. I was staying in Amboise so I chose tours starting from Amboise. If you are staying in Paris then you'd choose tours starting from Tours.

The reasonable fee does not include chateaux entrance. We gave money to the guide and he/she purchased discounted group tickets for us. We had about 90 minutes in each chateau on our own. Over all we were happy with it.

To get to Tours though means minimum 60 euros return by train often much more. Whatever gonna cost for 4 lots of money unless driving from Paris and back, a daunting idea for many really not that hard.

I don't think you are considering the cost of such a tour if you did it yourself, if you think $202 is so expensive. It sounds like a lot, but train fare alone if not bought far in advance will run 40-60 euro EACH WAY. Those tours include all the transportation around the local area between chateaux AND a guide, even if the guide doesn't do the actual chateau and you just have an audioguide. This is about a 10-12 hour trip all told. $202 USD is only about 173 euro. So that means you are only paying about 50 euro each for such a trip for the entire day compared to the last minute train fare.

If you think it would be cheaper to go to Tours and get a local tour, it wouldn't. I just checked the French tourisme website and local similar tours leaving from Tours itself (small group in minivan to those chateaux) would be 58 euro for a day. However, if you want a local one for just half a day for a couple chateaux, those are around 40 euro (so you'd save 10 euro per person overall but have to get there yourself). This is the company
Tourevasion.com - Excursions Program - Your reservation

What exactly are you expecting it to cost per person from Paris? You can do it cheaper if you buy the train tickets far in advance, but then they would be nonrefundable. But if that works for you, I think an APEX fare train ticket from Paris to Amboise is around 25 euro one way. That local tour company does some from Amboise, I believe. So that would cost you at least 50 euro for train and 40 euro for the tour, or only about 100 euro per person. That would be cheaper, for sure, if you can deal with those terms.

But many of those shutles from Amboise and Tours do not include entry fees either.

Some years ago, DH and I did a tour by City Rama (may have new name?) and loved it. It was expensive (can't find notes with exact price--sorry) but worth it for information from the guides, someone else driving, someone else getting the tickets and a lunch. This tour visited Chenonceau; Cheverny (where we ate lunch); and Chambord. It was a long day but we enjoyed it. We also felt it would be a lovely driving trip.

Here is another idea for you. I take it you are a family of 4? Perhaps contact Jean-Baptiste owner at Blue Fox and see if you can negotiate a private tour for the day. He was conducting a private tour at the same time as our small group tour. The 2 guides were in contact throughout the day. https://www.bluefox.travel/paris/contacts.html

Parisvision is now Pariscityvision. I suspect they are the company cited at the beginning for around $202, sounds like the same tour. But their website is running a promotion now and it's only 143 euro right now. I took a tour with them once a long time ago to Vaux le Vicomte and they did a very good job of that, also.

https://www.pariscityvision.com/en/f...valley-castles

143 euro - hop on that!

Thanks!! Will check it out!

From the piazza before the train station in Blois, you can get an all-day ticket for a navette that will take you to Chambord, Villesavin, Cheverny, and Beauregard. You can get off at any of the ch teaux, and catch a later bus to continue the circuit. The ticket costs only €6 and gives a discount on admission to the ch teaux. (At one ch teau, they had never heard of this discount, and in order to avoid delay we didn't insist.) You can download this brochure with the schedule and tariff.

http://medias.tourism-system.com/e/f/403661_navettes_chateaux_2018.pdf

You should arrive early to catch the first departure if you want to visit several ch teaux.

So that may well be the cheapest option! But, that means getting to Austerlitz train station in Paris - pre-booking train tickets weeks in advance to get discounted tickets (or pay probably 35-40 euros each way full-fare if not - most discounted tickets are train-specific and can't be changed nor refunded - so lots of hassles but if not liking mega group bus tours a great option - thanks bvlenci for adding that shuttle info.

Chenonceau is a "don't miss" imho.