Loire Valley Castles Tour from Paris: Chambord, Chenonceau with Lunch & Wine

This was a fun day from Paris. The guides were great. I talked to Addie a lot and she was so sweet. The castles were amazing and our lunch was hosted by a count. It is a long bus ride but worth it. The only thing was that there was no wifi or charges on the bus.

If you are looking for a small group tour (as advertised) this is NOT it. We were surprised to see a large coach with 60+ people. The tour guide made a point of saying that we would break out in small groups, but this never happened. Every stop people were 15-30 minutes late from the departure time with the tour guide making no effort to get people back on-time. Besides not being the small group we expected, the castles were amazing with beautiful gardens. The lunch was a pleasant surprise with good food, good wine and done efficiently for such a large group. Overall we really enjoyed the castles, lunch and wines, but felt like we wasted so much time due to the size of the group and the lack of leadership from the tour guide.

This was a wonderful experience! Addi and Brad were great tour guides! Seeing the chateaux was great, but the icing on the cake was lunch and wine tasting. Thanks to Addi and Brad for a wonderful day!

This tour was one of the highlights of our 10-day European trip. Our tour was through City Wonders and our guide, Michelle, was knowledgeable, fun, and professional. We enjoyed our lunch and wine tasting at Chateaux Nitray with Francois. We were traveling with our teenage sons and they loved the tour too. Chambord is amazing! This was well worth our investment. We made memories for a lifetime.

This tour was amazing! The castles were like a fairytale and the vineyard was FANTASTIC! Our tour guides were very knowledgeable not only about the castles and vineyard, but about the French history. This was our favorite thing to do while we were in Paris for 8 days.

My two adult daughters and I visited Paris in mid-June. We were looking for a day trip to experience more of the area outside the city, and chose the Loire Valley Castles Tour. We all loved it! This was a full-day experience, and was definitely worth the price. We all felt like we got to see a nice variety of castles, with two opportunities for a wine-tasting. At Chambord we were able to walk around the castle and the grounds. Our second stop at Nitray Vineyards was a highlight, with a wonderful roast chicken dinner with a variety of wines and a lovely dessert. One of my daughters is a vegetarian, and she had plenty to eat with the potatoes, salad, tomatoes, bread and cheese. Our third stop was at the beautiful Chenonceau Castle, where we had a second optional wine-tasting in a 600-year-old wine cellar. We would have liked to have had more time at each stop, but we understand that there is a time limit based on the driving distance, and unfortunately one couple on our tour was consistently 10 minutes late meeting back at the bus after each stop. While these things are unavoidable when touring with a group, our tour guides did their best to keep everyone on time. The bus was very comfortable, with a restroom on board, although we also stopped at a halfway point both in the morning and on the return trip. This tour of wine country was definitely a highlight of our trip to Paris!

Our guides Hugo and Michelle were fantastic! We really enjoyed a long but very nice day trip from Paris. The area is beautiful and the 3 stops were definitely worth it. The lovely lunch at a working winery was delicious and plentiful. The Chenonceau was my favorite castle! I would highly recommend this trip.

The tour guides were knowledgeable and very pleasant. The meeting spot, however, was not clear. Everything else was great.

Wonderful tour of the Loire Valley, with castles, wine etc. The guides were at the exact place at the exact time and they even waited a few minutes for people running late. Brad and Diane joined us on the bus and they were extremely nice, knowledgeable and entertaining for the entire day. We explored two castles and attended 2 wine tastings. This is an entire day tour but you will leave very satisfied, Highly recommended.

We enjoyed the tour and lunch very much. It is well organized. In specific, the tour guide "Anatole" was fantastic. He was doing an outstanding job.

The tour met up at a bus stop near a park. We arrived early and got coffee and a pastry at a nearby cafe to eat on the bus. When the bus departed, our tour guide, Michelle, gave us an overview of the day then gave us time to nap. The tour started at 7:30 a.m. We stopped along the way at a rest area with a convenience store and pastry/coffee shop, so it wasn't necessary to eat breakfast beforehand. After the rest stop, Michelle told us about the history of the Chateaux de Chambord. We had plenty of time to explore the Chateaux, and she pointed out great photo locations and took some of us. After the Chateaux de Chambord, we had lunch at Chateau de Nitray. The owner and his family prepared and served a locally-sourced lunch of chicken, vegetables, bread, cheese, and dessert. The meal was served with wines produced on their vineyard, and everything was delicious! We went on a brief tour of the grounds, then we had the opportunity to purchase some of the wines. They boxed them for us so they could be transported in our suitcase. We declared them at customs. After Chateau de Nitray, we traveled to the Chateau de Chenonceau. Michelle told us about the history of the castle along the way, and she pointed out interesting locations and history along the drive. She is a great story teller, and it was very interesting to hear about the lives of the people who established the castles. We began our tour of Chenonceau with a wine tasting. They were also delicious! After the wine tasting, we had time to explore the chateau, and it had a large gift shop with products produced on the estate. This tour was excellent! It was a fascinating mix of history, art, food, and wine that gave three very different presentations of chateaus in France. Also, it wouldn't have been nearly as great without Michelle. She was funny and liked to make fun of her own jokes she also made the people from the castles' history come alive when she told about their lives.

What an amazing day! After spending 9 days in France, everyone decided this was one of our 2 favorite days. Our guides (Michelle and Anatole) were great! They were both very knowledgable, gave us tons of information about each place we visited and were extremely friendly and funny! They were also helpful when we returned to Paris and needed to take the metro. I will definitely include this when I bring my next group of travelers to France!!

Thank You! Awesome Day! Food Was Great And Wine Tasting was Yummy!...Castles were So Beautiful And Awesome!...Such Interesting History!