We’re travelling in September by train. Which town or towns in the Loire valley makes a good base to rent ebikes and visit wineries and Chateaus? We just want to do short bike rides 20-40 km per day.
Posted by
Loire Valley
749 posts
The obvious answer is Tours. Anywhere smaller won't have the transport links (or open bike hire places) you will need. Stay in tours and you can combine your bike riding with starting the day with a ride on the train (with bike) to get you to different areas.
As this is a RS forum you will get many suggestions of Amboise. Amboise has two bike hire places that are sometimes open (one of them is hardly ever open, not sure how they do their trade) . It's much smaller, much more touristy and is a pain by public transport - if you want to travel to an area furtehr away to ride you will be catching the train to Tours anyway.
Posted by
Greeley, co, usa
2394 posts
I don’t know about bike rentals, but I have used Onzain as a place to stay and found it convenient
Posted by
Florida, USA
12172 posts
Amboise has a bike shop or two. If you want an ebike, a good idea IMO, you will need to reserve ahead. They have some but they get rented up quickly. I dropped my bike in Amboise after picking up in Chinon.
From Amboise you can visit Chenonceaux by bike. It's under 25 km each way but the first mile or so is up off the river and fairly difficult. After that it's not bad the rest of the way. Amboise also has the Royal Chateau and Clos Luce, you could see both by foot while in town.
I rode through Tours and found it scary by bike, lots of heavy traffic on narrow roads. If you stay on the bike trail along the Loire, you should be able to get through Tours and see Villandry. Not sure how many kms but it's basically flat along the river. I lost the bike trail in Tours following my GPS's bad directions.