Loire Valley Places To Stay

I second Hotel La Roseraie. Charming place to stay with free parking and a very short walk to the Chateau.
The evenig meal there was the best we had during our visit to France in 2009. http://www.hotel-chenonceau.com/index.php?id_site=2

I don't have a specific hotel to recommend, but suggest that you look at staying in Tours. It's a charming smallish city and is BANG in the middle of the Loire Valley - convenient to everything and a perfect home base for seeing the chateaux and visiting the vinyards. Tours itself also has attractions - an impressive town hall, lovely public parks, a gorgeous cathedral, and a rather nice fine art museum, which has a cool surprise: a stuffed elephant from Barnum and Bailey's circus! I do not kid.

We really liked La Roseraie in Chenonceux. Besides being charming, it has an excellent restaurant and you can walk to the chateau from there. Assuming you have a car, it is very easy to drive from Chenonceux ( a small village) to visit other Loire Valley locations.

La Roserie (sp) or La Bon Laboreur- both in Chanceaux within an easy walk of the Chareau. Recommended for ambiance and for their restaurants (we stayed/ate at La Bon Laboreur). There are quite a few places a little distance from tours as well. more of a country feeling than being right in town

We liked staying in Amboise at the Manoir les Minimes. It's next to the river, right under the Amboise chateau/castle. The pictures on the website will give you an idea: http://www.manoirlesminimes.com/

Ryan - I think you would enjoy the Hotel Diderot (http://www.hoteldiderot.com) in Chinon. We stayed there on a RS tour and I just loved the place. The owners were very accommodating and went out of their way to ensure that we had everything we needed. The décor was charming, the rooms were spacious, and breakfast a real treat with homemade bread and jams. It is a beautiful area of France. The Royal Fortress of Chinon was built in the 1200's and is quite impressive. There are also a number of great wineries and restaurants. I hope you enjoy your trip!

I second staying in/near Amboise. Look at Le Bon Laboreur
Le Fleuray

We have stayed at Le Fleuray which is near Amboise twice. It is a beautiful property, very comfortable and well situated for visiting the chateaus. It is owned/run by an English family so that is a plus for those of us who are not keeping up with our french lessons.
And they also have a wonderful restaurant. My husband still raves about the duck he had there.