3 Loire Castles Live Guided Small group Mercedes minivan Winery

We loved this trip! Offseason visit to these 3 castles and we were pretty much the only ones there. And in the misty winter weather, every castle had an ethereal look and feel.

Our guide, David, was excellent ~ a history student at Sorbonne who has done many tours. Highly recommend him if available. The driver was also excellent but didnt get his name.

Please know It is a very tight schedule so that may be why people have felt rushed on other trips, but we were happy to fit everything in and have plenty of happy memories from our day trip.

18 January 2025

Amazing trip to the Loire Valley.
It felt like we had the castles to ourselves with our guide. Loved seeing the small towns and had an amazing lunch in one of them. David our guide provided us with relevant and interesting information on the sites we were seeing. Great guide.
I would definitely use this company again.
We choose Hotel Pickup, they communicated well, and the driver was amazing. He was very courteous and helpful.
The transportation was spotless and comfortable. Definitely worth doing !

16 January 2025

Viator review: Loire Valley Top 3 Castles & Wine Small-Group Trip by Mercedes
Tour guide was thorough and the castles and winery were time well spent, learned a lot
about 1400s and beyond French nobility from our guide.

25 December 2024

Olga, our tour guide, was very knowledgeable and brought the stories to life. We learned
a lot of history in a few hours!

15 October 2024

Our guide Helen and the Roman, the driver, picked us from the hotel exactly in time with smile on their faces. The car was very clean and worm. Helen gave us tones of very interesting and useful information all along the tures, especially about the history of France and high lighting events of the history of the Castels we visit. She was very careful about our diets, allergies and preferences, making smart chooses of the restorants we eat. Roman drive us as close as was possible and was very attentive and polite. Very good driving skills. In conclusion they make us a great experience in this tour. We highly recommend them

3 October 2024

Outstanding guide Olga was knowledgeable, professional and yet personal, easily connecting with us. She was very thoughtful in picking us up at our hotel and figuring out an alternative since I was having trouble doing all the stairs. I would say this was one of our best tours- the history, the stories, the chateaux’s beauty- all so very wonderful. And the driver was also terrific!!!

20 September 2024

In short, this trip exceeded my expectations, and is an exceptional value when you consider that you are getting a driver and a guide for a full day. Our driver, was pleasant and had a very clean and comfortable van. Our guide Ilya was a history student at the Sorbonne, and he loved answering all of our questions.

I read several comments where people said they did not have enough time at the 3 Chateaux. I am not sure what they were expecting. We spent about an hour and a half at each, and we found that a suffientient enough amount of time to experience each. To be honest, if you consider that the round trip drive from Paris to the Loire Valley and back is over 5 hours, I think it is a credit to the tour company that they have figured out how to schedule a 3 Chateaux tour.

For me, the biggest surprise was the wine tasting. We visited Plou and Fils, a winery that has been in the same family for 500 years. I found their pours to be standard for a wine tasting, and they had an excellent selection of wines from the Valley.

Again, I found this to be an excelent tour, and I would reccomend it to anyone. Also, the tour operator was very responsive to all my questions prior to our trip.

10 August 2024

This tour was fantastic! Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and gave us some great history and details about every location we visited. He was very accommodating to the group and we had enough free time at each location to explore on our own. The wine tour was excellent as well. The wine-maker gave us details about the process and we were able to sample whatever wines we wanted. The wine was very delicious, as was the sparkling wine. Everything was great and the transportation was comfortable and cool. You do stop for a quick lunch at one of the locations and there are several different restaurants to choose from. Be sure to find one that has the food you like. You don’t have to go with the restaurant that the guide recommends. So if you prefer pizza vs french cuisine, go for it! You also stop at a gas station on the way there and the way back for a rest stop and where you can get snacks and a refreshment. Be prepared for a long day, but it was well worth it! I highly recommend this tour.

30 July 2024

Amazing history and castles. Guide was amazing. Very knowledgeable about Paris, France and castles. Our plane was delayed and our guide worked with us to be able to see some of the castles after getting a very late start. We can’t wait to come back and see even more castles on the 2 day castle tour.

31 May 2024

Olga was great! We really had a great experience even with the rain all day. Loved the
three castles all were different but learned a lot about each castle and the history of
them. . Driver was great!

2 May 2024

We had the most extraordinary journey! It was more than just going to visit beautiful castles and driving through incredible countryside with brilliant green grasses and wildflowers everywhere. Our guide was generous and informative and a pleasure to be with! The end of our day was a double rainbow...sort of summed it up!

29 April 2024

I love history, I have read a lot about French History and about its kings. This tour did not disappoint! Olga and Roman were amazing guides. The castles we visited were beyond beautiful, Olga was so knowledgeable about them all. Lunch was perfect. The wine tasting was the best way to end the tour! I would do this tour again tomorrow!

21 November 2023

The guide and the driver were fantastic. The castles were incredible! The guide could speak a bit louder, but otherwise recommend 10/10!!

28 November 2024

Diana was an amazing guide, very knowledgeable about the history of the castles. There
wasn’t a confirm on the hotel pickup, but they arrived to get us at the day and time that
was ordered, and dropped us off that night. It was a good way to get out of the city.

13 November 2023

Our tour guide Olga was fantastic very entertaining the driver was very good and the
Mercedes Van comfortable

4 November 2023

I’m 60 and ever since I was a high school student in French class I had a dream of seeing the grand chateaux of the Loire Valley.
Tout was wonderful. Guide very knowledgeable of French history and polite. Time was tight because you see ALOT in one day. But it was grand. Took my trip from a great trip to a grand trip. Just lovely.

25 September 2023

Our guide/ driver: Caray , pronounced
“Cyrus?”, was astounding! His knowledge, on so many issues was always enlightening. His driving was also terrific. It is a long day but the chateaus were fascinating. The lunch in Amboise was superb. If you have a full
day, it will be very memorable. And if you get “Cary” it will be phenomenal!

19 September 2023

Seeing the three Chateaux and the excellent
Guide. Cyrus was the most informed
Tour guide we ever met.

15 September 2023

Took this tour with my family. Loved that it was a small group which allowed for more accessibility to the tour guide. He was very knowledgeable and seemed to be generally interested in the fact that the participants were taken care of. The castles visited were absolutely beautiful! I would highly recommend taking this tour to get more of a taste of what France has to offer. My girlfriend HATES history and enjoyed this tour!! That says a lot.

The wine tasting was a nice bonus; however like most wine tastings...you get a taste. Another bonus is that the price of a bottle of the fine French wine is a fraction of how much I pay during wine tastings in the states.

10 September 2023

Our guide was very informative and attentive to the needs of our group. We are from
Washington State USA. Our group included a couple from Nebraska, and another couple
from Japan. It was great experiencing the chateaus with a small group!

10 September 2023

We enjoyed visiting the castles, the villages and learning their history and function. This a
great educational trip conducted by our guide.

27 August 2023

This was an amazing trip and a highlight of our entire trip. The pick-up at the hotel was great. Fillip was a very nice host/tour guide. He gave us details about each castle. We only had 6 in our group, so it was ideal. The lunch stop was in a great little town/area with so many choices. The wine tasting was the most unique wine tasting I have ever been to. And the 3rd and final castle was a real show stopper! I highly recommend this trip!

27 July 2023

Awesome day tour to see three castles and go wine tasting in the beautiful Loire Valley! It
was a long 13-hour day but we loved every minute! The castles are amazing. Lots of
history too. We had an amazing time. Highly recommended!

30 June 2023