Hello, my wife and I will be traveling to France in mid September and our first 3 days are in the Loire Valley. We plan on visiting Chambord and Chenonceau on to separate days, and spending some time in Tours and Amboise. We will be renting a car but we don't want to rush from one place to another. My question is, do we need reservations for the Chateaus or can we buy our tickets the day of? Reason I ask is because when looking at the site for tickets, it doesn't let you choose a date, it just says that the tickets are good until the end of the year. The site I was looking at for the tickets is the site from Rick Steve's latest guide book. Thank you.
Posted by
Paris
11464 posts
Hmmm. I have definitely bought advance tickets for a specific date for Chenonceau before.
And yes, for it at least, I would buy tickets ahead of time. It would be awful to get there and then not get to visit.
Edit to add : yes, just checked the site, and when purchasing tickets in advance, it makes you select a date and time. . .
Posted by
Huntington Beach CA
1238 posts
I was there last month and we bought our tickets for Chenonceau when we arrived there and they gave us a timed entry. We had to wait 45 minutes to enter the chateau but we were able to walk the grounds. We bought our Chambord tickets ahead of time. Maybe you can check the day before to make sure you can get a time slot you want. I get wanting flexibility but you also don't want to miss out!