Loire Valley trip without a tour?

Susanna,
My recommendation is that you stay in Tours and from Tours you can take minivan excursions from LE QUART DE TOURS (www.chateaux-tours.com). They simply offer transportation ton the chateaux, not guided tours nor entrance fees. I found it totally worth it. Some chateaux you can get to on your own (Villandry, for example, is reachable by bus, etc).
I have yet to rent a car for a European adventure (have had friends do it), but I don't like driving.

I'm sure the Quart de Tours folks do a good job, and there are other companies with similar services. But their website says they charge 124 euros per person for a full-day tour of Chenonceau and Chambord, including admissions, plus lunch in Amboise. The "a la carte" admission and parking charges for those two chateaux total about 30 euros for one person. So you're paying a lot to be driven and given what I'm sure is a good lunch. If you don't mind driving, I'd think you could save quite a bit and have flexibility to visit more places on your own schedule. Using local buses would cost the least but be very inconvenient as far as scheduling your time.

Are you thinking of a one-day trip from Paris to the Loire and back? That can be done, but it's very rushed. Better to spend several days with a car, basing in Tours, Chinon, Amboise, or elsewhere, depending on where you want to spend your time.

I remember doing the Loire Valley by train back in the 70's. I'm sure the train lines are the same. We were able to visit several chateaus and the ride was beautiful.

Not all of the chateaux can be reached by train, and even then the trains can be infrequent. For example, in the case of Chenonceau, when I visited I was staying at Tours. The train from Tours left at about 11 am. The next train back to Tours was about 4.30 pm (if I remember correctly). Amboise is similar in terms of trains. There are some chateaux in the middle of major towns such as Angers and Blois, so they are easier to reach by train. So the infrequency of trains makes a day trip from Paris difficult. If you want to use trains it is better to base yourself in Tours or Blois for a few days.

I would suggest taking the train to the Le Mans or Tours area and then renting a car. There is so much to see that tying yourself to a bus / train schedule would severely limit the number of places you will be able to visit. If you have flexibility in your schedule you may want to look into the Ouigo train schedules. It is a special once a day train that runs from Paris by the SNCF at absurdly cheap prices. We travel from Paris to Rennes and back frequently and when our flights allow us to catch the once a day Ouigo high speed train it costs us 10 Euros per person plus extra luggage charge of 5 Euros per large piece. If you do that, opt for the extra 2 Euro charge for an electrical outlet as that will put you into what was a first class car. Worth it for the larger reclining seats.

Susanna,
If you can spare a few days, I'd suggest you spend a few nights in the Loire Valley, especially if you want to tour a few castles without a car.

My daughter & I spent 3 wonderful nights in peaceful Amboise & we visited 4 castles without a car.
We followed RS advice found in his France guidebook:

• Take the local city bus from Amboise to/from Chenonceau Chateau -- our favorite!

• Take the Chateaux Shuttle (bus), known as 'Navette Chateaux- Route 41' (used to be route 18), from Blois to Chambord, Cheverny & Beauregard Chateaux for €6pp (bus ticket offers a small admission discount at each of the chateaux)--only runs April-- October, on Wednesdays & weekends.

Both TI offices in Amboise & Blois were very helpful.

Enjoy your trip!

Seeing Loire chateaux by train and/or bus is very inconvenient, and I assume in some cases impossible. We've done it several times with a car, but one time we took our niece and decided to do it w/o a car. Our base was Amboise, and we wound up having to hire a taxi for the day to drive us around, because the shuttle bus tour from Amboise was booked. A very expensive proposition. But if you plan well, and look into all the options in advance, I'm sure you can make it to several chateaux. It may be that Tours would be a better base.

We originally wanted to take train from Paris to Chartres, see the cathedral, and pick up a rental car for the Loire Valley portion of our trip. Turned out to be impossible because we could not get an automatic transmission rental car in Chartres. Ended up renting car in Paris (at Gare Montparnasse, which I would not do again -- Orly Airport much better departure point for Chartres and Loire Valley).

The chateaux we visited would emphatically not be easy to visit with public transportation. The rental car was essential.

General parking note: some parking areas (for example, at Chinon) are for buses only -- there's a horizontal bar too low for buses that indicates the passenger car parking areas. If you park a passenger car in the bus parking lot, bus drivers may be annoyed and purposely block you in and refuse to move to let you out.

Have a look at the one- and two-day tours offered by Loire Valley Time Travel. Besides visiting some lesser known chateuax in style, you could also go orchid or bird spotting.

I went to visit chateaux at Chambord, Chennonceaux, Blois, and Amboise, all inexpensively by train and bus; visiting those was not very inconvenient if you take the time to plan.Amboise and Blois or Tour are good bases to explore the chateaux of the Loire. The French have organized transport to these sites for travelers of all means just ask the concierge before you get there; or you have to pick a base or two and research the internet your public transport options. Choose 2 to 3 chateux because after that it all starts to look the same (with or without a car) especially the interiors. save some chateaux for future trips.

It is far more efficient to book some sort of tour, particularly in winter.

I found public transportation options awkward regarding routes and schedules, so would not recommend if you have only one day and your "base point" is Paris.

Less costly than an escorted coach tour from Paris would be to go to Tours via train from Gare Montparnasse and take one of the many tours departing from the Tourist Office which is right across the street from the station.

We booked with Touraine Evasion. There are many others with similar prices and the schedule varies from one to another, half day or full day. You can also combine a morning tour and afternoon tour. Depends on your preferred chateaux to visit.

We chose Amboise, Chenonceau, Chiverny, Chambord, and took a 7:43 train from Gare Montparnasse, arriving at 9:05, plenty of time to walk across the street and join the tour. Transportation was a comfortable mini-van with excellent guide/driver. She gave us iPads to review information about each chateau along the way. At Amboise, we had time for a leisurely coffee before continuing on. At Chiverny, we had a leisurely lunch (not included) at the Orangerie. The entire day was perfectly paced, never rushed, and the driver pointed out other chateaux and gardens all along the way.

If you do book tours from Tours, take care booking your return train. Our tour was supposed to end at 6:15 and we nearly missed our 6:31 return train, due to a bit of traffic on the way to the station. The driver kindly dropped us at the station to save just enough time to board before the train departed.