Looking for recommendation to stay in a chateau in either Chenenceau or Amboise.

Hello,

We just stayed at a fabulous Chateau (June 13th to 16rth) about 5 min outisde of Amboise-Chateau Nazelles (www.chateau-nazelles.com). The hosts were warm and friendly, the rooms were beautiful (clean and quiet), and the grounds were just beautiful. I cannot say enough good things about this wonderful place. =)

Wow Stephanie, Chateau Nazelles looks amazing. The only problem I'd have there is... I wouldn't want to leave!

We just stayed at Hotel Le Manoir les Minimes in Amboise this May and it was just like staying in a Chateau. Has great views of the Amboise Chateau, just up the lane, and was clean, convenient, comfortable and reasonable. Amboise is a nice, convenient town to stay in and you can walk to everything from the Hotel. If you stay in the area I highly recommend La Breche Restaurant. We had an excellent meal there.

Our tour groups have enjoyed staying at Château De La Bourdaisière, near Montlouis-sur-Loire. That site has links to other properties in the area, too.

It's on the other side of Tours, but we stayed at Château de Marçay, 37500 Marçay - Chinon in 2012. We walked through Château De La Bourdaisière in connection with visiting their extensive modern gardens, but didn't stay there. It seemed a little understaffed, but we weren't there at a mealtime. Note that they do cooking classes and catering at their 120-species tomato garden (Bourdaisière.) OTOH, a 10-person Bike Tour group slowed down our breakfast service at Marçay, even though they were put in a private room.

I would observe that with the demand for "modern" comforts, elevators, chambermaid storage, and so on, you should not expect to feel like you are in the middle of an episode of a PBS costume-drama. You should also be prepared for no air-conditioning, and casement windows with no way to fasten them open for a breeze without slamming sometimes!

I don't mean to sound like a complainer - we were happy enough with our stay. But some places still feel like a great old house/castle, some more like a luxurious boarding house. Naturally, you need a car to do this kind of thing. I would study TripAdvisor or some other authority reviews closely before booking.

chambermaid storage

I've never stayed anywhere where I could store my own personal chambermaid. Cool.

LOL