This coming March I will be in Tours to do the rounds of the Loire Valley Chateaux. As presently planned, I fly into Tours on 03/10, and can stay until 03/16 (when I would leave for Paris). That's 5 full days. I'm not going to rush from one site to another, I like to take my time. I'm 67, but no mobility issues. I will not have a car, but am not adverse to renting bicycles (or scooters?) to get around for short distances locally. My question is, how many days do I really need to see the major tourist chateaux, and maybe a couple of extras? I certainly don't mind staying the whole five days, but is that too much? Is there somewhere else not too far away that would be a better use of, say 2 days? If I can fill up four days, with one extra, that would be about perfect. I'm just concerned that I will "run out" of places I want to see (or can easily reach). I prefer to be on my own rather than a tour group, but for places that can't easily be accessed unless you have a car, I will make exceptions. I realize this is kind of a open-ended question, and I haven't really sat down to plan out the details of my time in the valley, but any advice from people who have been there would be appreciated. Thanks.
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
6803 posts
Without knowing how many chateaux you want to visit, and where they are located, plus any other sites you want to visit; and without knowing how you will get to all these places without a car or a tour, it's impossible to say how many days you will need. Start with figuring out what you want to see. Then figure out how you can get from place to place by researching distances and public transportation. Unless you are very experienced with scooters, I'd be quite cautious about riding them on some of the roads, which can be quite often winding and narrow, and without paved shoulders. But there are a fairly large numbers of chateaux within a 50 km radius of Tours.
We spent 4 nights (3 full days) in the Loire and ran out of time before seeing even half of what we wanted. And we had a car and visited 3 chateaux each day. But i highly doubt you could manage that with public transportation or a bike.