13 Days - Loire Valley whole time or Loire and then Lyon?

Spending the entire time in the Loire might be too much, especially if you only plan to see chateaux. I like the idea of splitting the time between the Loire and Lyon. I’ve been to both this year. Lyon has a lot to see.

We spent a week in the Loire and it was more than enough. After half a dozen chateaux we found ourselves spending a day at the zoo near St-Aignan. A very good zoo, but not what you come to France to see. Your #1 plan makes sense if you want to see chateaux on both sides of Tours, but my choice would be #2, picking either Amboise or Chinon as a Loire base (not both, too much time moving) and then going on to Lyon. I may be a bad judge because I haven't been to Lyon and want to go, while I've been to the Loire twice. But if Lyon is calling to you, why not answer the call?

I’ve been to those areas, and I would definitely pick your second option. It’s always nice to have some variety within a trip. Lyon is very easy to enjoy. We used the little funicular to go up to the top of the hill and also walked up & down. We had a small apartment in the Vieux Lyon (old center) - loved the atmosphere! It was in one of the traboules. Be sure to walk through some of them & research the history of how they were used.

Some people love chateau, others have had enough after a couple of days. You need to mix the Medieval with all these Renaissance palaces for a bit of variety.
I'd book only a few nights in the Loire, add a couple nights onto Lyon and include a day trip to Vienne just south of Lyon.

I'd leave any nights between the two for stopping between the two. Without a map in front of me, here are some names: Guedelon, Bourges in the Berry, sites in Burgundy such as Vézelay, Macon, Dijon, Montréal, Avallon.

Thank you for all the replies. This is helping very much in our planning, to look at all the options. :-)

We spent around four or five days in the Loire region with a car and I still rank it among the best few days anywhere on any trip we’ve taken. Loved every minute. Even as a fervent fan we were happy with our allotted time and I’d consider the shorter visit with add-ons elsewhere. Driving was easy in the Loire area. Lyon is still on the list so can’t comment. We also really like our driving time in Burgundy, mainly the Yonne region. . Safe travels.

If you are trying to decide between Amboise and Chinon as a base for the Loire I would personally choose Amboise. We stayed there in 2014 and enjoyed it as a base and as a destination. We were just in Chinon last a few weeks ago and I would never choose it as a base. Amboise has more to offer. We just based in Tours for 4 nights and liked staying there, but it is bigger and busier than Amboise.

I like the 2nd option above. We spent 7 days in Amboise last fall and we happy with that as a base for the Loire and certainly enough time to see most sites with our car. We didn’t need a car in Lyon and spent 4 days there. It was a perfect amount of time for us and the high speed train to CDG was very handy.

Is 3 full days in Lyon enough? The day before would be a travel day to get there and then we would have 3 and then a travel day to CDG.

Kate

We spent 4 nights/3 full days in Lyon and kept busy the entire time. We saw a lot, but didn’t have time to get to other things. Of course that’s the case even when one has more time I find. If you can spend 5 nights I don’t think you’ll run out of things to see, but it’s a personal choice how much time to allocate to each place.

Although I usually opt for staying in one place for a longer time, I would opt for #2 plan. Lyon is a great town to visit. And the train ride at the end back to Paris (CDG) is kind of fun. But if you are tempted to go for plan #1, and don't want to spend all of the time looking at chateaux, there are some wonderful gardens in the Loire. Peter

We were in Lyon for three days/three nights, and we were able to do a lot there. For your two areas, I would give five to the Loire Valley area (including Le Mans, or Chartres) and three for Lyon.

Thank you everyone!!! This was all so helpful! And, I am getting so excited to go. :-)

We just got back from three weeks in France. We only spent three nights in Amboise, but that was plenty for us. The big surprise was that we left Amboise, stopped off at Ch. Villandry (awesome - both for famous gardens and not-sofamous-but-should-be chateau), and then went to Nantes and Carnac. We were stunned at how fantastic those two towns are. Not that I'm pushing Brittany; I'm just saying that for us, three days in Amboise was enough and then the contrast between its sleepy streets and the activity of Nantes (Les Machines de l'Île - OMG!!!) was really fun. SO less Amboise, and more Lyon would be the way I'd go. IMHO, anyway.