Dordogne touring by train

I think it's not so much the train schedule that will constrain you, but the utter lack of train service to many of the popular small towns. I will be in SW France later this year and hope to see a bit of the Dordogne and/or Lot. I haven't yet looked into schedules, but I have taken notes from guide books about the basic availability of train and bus service. (Rick is very good on logistics for the places he covers in his books.) Sometimes there is kinda-sorta train service, to a station that is 3 miles or more from the town; I don't really count that. Quite a number of places have bus service, but it is often very limited and designed for children going back and forth to school, so no mid-morning or mid-afternoon service. What might happen during school-vacation period, I have no idea.

My notes (not based on personal experience or local knowledge!) indicate that there is no public transportation to these attractive towns: Beynac-et-Cazenac, Bourdeilles, Domme, La Roque-Gageac, Monpazier. There's also unlikely to be transportation to get you within walking distance of most of the caves.

Brantome has very limited service, just two buses per day from Perigueux, and only on Monday-Friday.

Mind you, I didn't make note of transportation for every town, just the ones I thought sounded especially interesting.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do this, but suggesting that you get specific about the places you hope to see and research your transportation options before locking in accommodations that depend on availability of trains and buses.

I find the Deutsche Bahn website easier to use than SNCF for checking schedules. If those sites don't recognize the name of the town you're looking for (and you're sure you've spelled it right), that means there is no regular train service. Perhaps there is some sort of high-priced/historic/narrow-gauge rail option, but those are typically designed to provide an experience, not to get your from Point A to Point B.

To check rail fares you'll need to use SNCF for perhaps trainline.eu or loco2.com. Do not use RailEurope, which will probably cost you a lot extra and may not display all options.

To check on buses you can either Google Bus Sarlat to xxxxxx or start with Rome2Rio.com. The latter is generally accurate about the existence of bus service, but you must not trust its travel times, frequencies or fares. In a case like this, trusting Rome2Rio's details could be fatal to your trip. You need to dig down on that website to find the name of the bus company providing service and go to its website to check the schedule.

I have never driven in Europe for a combination of reasons, but for a party of three I would heartily recommend a car. It will make a huge difference. Otherwise, you are going to severely limit your range, and you're likely to have an experience I'm all too familiar with--having to decide on several occasions whether to skip lunch and move on or take time to eat and end up spending way too long in a cute little town that only has one or two hours' worth of sights.

Driving in the Dordogne is easy with a GPS. We went down some one lane roads (never saw another car on them) through woods and fields with the most beautiful cows I have ever seen. Diving the busier roads wasn't a problem either except trying not to gawk at the scenery. Didn't bother driving at night.

You should go to the Tourist Information center in Sarlat.
For the Tourist without a car there are day tours to the hard to reach areas.

Thanks for posting that information, Jazz. I may try that myself.

WOW! Instant replies. I think forgetaboutit! likely sums it up unless we consider local tours. It is very helpful to know about the train situation also, since we will be taking some trains elsewhere. This should convince my husband, who perhaps should know better after spending half his life in UK train stations on prior trips. Plus we have driven in other parts of France and Germany in years past without problems. Thank you all for your very good advice. Great site. I will peruse it further. Maybe I can add our two bits after our trip.

Yes the TI had all kinds of tours of varying duration to those hard to reach places. And it seems common knowledge to locals that the area is hard to get around as the hotels call private drivers running their on businesses filling the need of the tourists that do not have cars. We hired one in January (extreme off season but you get the area all to yourself) to pick us up at in Sarlat drop us off in La Roque and come back 3 hours later take us back to Sarlat for 50 euros two people.

Late to the discussion, but what came to mind was "touring the Alps by barge."

I love the train, I hate the car.
But in La Dordogne, you need a car