we plan to tour the Loire Valley by bike. Which is better? unguided touring with a tour company or renting a bike and arrange for luggage to be transferred? we plan to go in Sept 2025. Which bike touring company is recommended?
Posted by
Greeley, co, usa
2603 posts
I like to stay in 1-2 places and do day trips. I like Azay-le-Rideau and Onzain ( now named Veuzain-sur-Loire ). The roads shown in white on Michelin 1:200,000 maps are excellent with very little traffc
Posted by
Seattle, WA
407 posts
A great starting place is for you to look at https://www.freewheelingfrance.com/. This site collects LOTS of information for getting around on your own as well as a number of operators who put together self guided trips such as you are asking about.
On the freewheeling website, you can zero in on the Loire and find five or six operators. Many will likely be willing to adapt their itineraries to satisfy your needs. Last year, we cycled one week in the Dordogne and another week in the Loire. The outfit we used, Velo Voyageur allowed us to do just that. You can find them on the freewheeling France website, as well as in out TR. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/fabulous-tour-de-france-2-weeks-on-foot-and-by-train-2-weeks-by-e-bike.
The Loire is full of well marked cycle routes, so if you would prefer to handle the logistics yourselves, that’s doable, but I would choose the let an outfitter do that. The cost was really quite reasonable (self-guided is MUCH cheaper than guided) and they did a pretty darn good job selecting hotels that were generally charming and nice - both in terms of quality and location. On each of our two one-week tours, we quite enjoyed 6 out of 7 hotels. A better batting average than I might have had than if I had struggled to assemble it all on my own.
Bon vacance!