Bordeaux Tours in October 2026

This review offers a general overview rather than an in-depth critique of every sight, hotel, and meal. The Blue-Roads Jewels of Southwest France tour was incredibly enjoyable, interesting, and provided excellent value. Nathalie, our tour leader, was highly knowledgeable, accommodating, and attentive to everyone’s needs while Ken, our driver, ensured safe navigation through the narrow, winding Blue-Roads to the many fascinating stops each day. The accommodation was generally excellent, especially considering the historic locations we stayed in. The rooms were always very clean, though some were small, and a few had showers over baths—a bit of a pet peeve these days. The charming villages, castles, churches (both large and small), and stunning scenery were places you likely wouldn’t visit on your own. The absolute highlight was staying at Hotel le Donjon within Carcassonne’s city walls and walking the entire ramparts. We highly recommend this Blue-Roads tour and look forward to taking another one in Europe or the UK soon!

The tour was wonderful! The countryside was beautiful and varied, the many small towns and villages charming and the sites we visited and the activities we experienced were fun, relaxed and informative. Personal highlights was the visit to the Lascaux Caves and to the castle at Bayonne. The entire experience was greatly enhanced by our guide Nathalie and our driver Ken who were both knowledgeable and extraordinarily kind and helpful. Highly recommended!

A wonderful trip overall. The accommodation was very good, especially in Lansac with Chistine. With hindsight, even though we are a bike fit couple in our 70s, we would choose the e-bike option for our next trip. More time for leisure en route! The map apps was good but had a couple of false starts while we got used to it. We highly recommend this trip.

Favorite day was in Provence when we toured the goat farm and had a wine and cheese tasting experience with the chef. Then went to the chef's villa and had a gourmet lunch, and met Ricky the truffle hunting pig. Our tour group went a round the table and each told us about our life experiences. A nice bonding moment. Or maybe it was the drive along the beautiful French Riviera to the Rothschild Mansion where we had lunch. Oh, wait I forgot about the perfume making and the walking around the old French hilltop villages. Too many great experiences to get them all in. Also, a shoutout to our wonderful tour guide, Maya Pashpurova, who really made this an unforgettable trip for all of us.

Our tour covered a lot of the history, architecture and geography of that area of France. The hotels were generally very good and central to what we were doing. What really made the tour were our tour leader Albert who was so much fun, so knowledgeable and such a great teacher. Kaspar the driver was also wonderful. Both of them went out of their way to help us in general. In particuar we needed help getting to our train station and they provided the transportation - we were so grateful The small group on the tour worked out so well. A super trip. Barb Green

For the most part, the tour itinerary was fantastic. We enjoyed Albi and would have preferred a night there. I could have also skipped the night in the Pyrennes (rather stay in a village). Otherwise I felt like all of the hotels were in perfect locations for the city/village we were in. For the accommodations, not a fan of Hotel du Barry (or whatever the name of the spa hotel is) but mostly because it wasn’t to my taste (otherwise fine). I’m sure you will hear many complaints about Hôtel Saint-Albert, the staff were “meh” and the breakfast was bogus or at least a big let down compared to what we had at other stops. Now for the part that made this trip fantastic – the team Kaspar and Albert. Kaspar was courteous, efficient, very accommodating and most importantly he made us feel safe. Albert was outstanding!! He is patient, entertaining, savvy and kind. His knowledge of everywhere and everything we saw was top notch and his history lessons made the experience that much better. You could not have a better representative for your tours. Bravo Albert!!