Things to do in Tours
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Tours
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best overall in spring, with gardens rising, dry cycle paths and temperatures around 13 to 22 degrees.
Peak gardens, crowds and heat in summer. Guinguette, canoeing and balloons in full swing, book everything.
Best overall in autumn and the wine pick, with harvest, golden light, fewer crowds and lower prices.
Quiet and cheap winter for a food and city weekend, but gardens dormant, some châteaux reduced and days short.
What's on
- International Garden Festival, Chaumont-sur-Loire late April to early November
Contemporary garden art in the château grounds at Chaumont.
- Vitiloire late May / early June weekend
Touraine wine producers take over central Tours streets and gardens for tastings and food.
- Fête de la Musique 21 June
Citywide music festival across Tours.
- 14 July festivities 14 July
Bastille Day festivities in Tours.
- Tours Christmas Market December
Modest regional Christmas market with lights in the city centre.
Best things to do in Tours
Place Plumereau
Medieval half timbered square that works as the old town living room for wandering and cafe terraces.
Cathédrale Saint-Gatien de Tours
Gothic cathedral with stained glass from medieval to modern and the quiet Psalette Cloister beside it.
Château de Chenonceau
The bridge château over the Cher with furnished rooms, tapestries and two formal gardens to compare.
Château de Villandry
Renaissance château famed for terraced gardens, an ornamental kitchen garden, water garden and maze.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours
Fine art in the former archbishop palace, plus a famous cedar and Fritz the elephant in the garden.
Château de Chambord
Vast royal château with a double helix staircase, rooftop terraces and a park the size of inner Paris.
Château Royal d'Amboise
Hilltop royal château and Leonardo trail in Amboise, paired with Clos Lucé a short walk away.
Les Halles de Tours
Covered food hall for Sainte-Maure cheese, rillettes, fouées and picnic shopping in the market quarter.
Where to stay in Tours
Vieux Tours / Cathedral Quarter / Centre
first trip, all-round base
Walk to Plumereau, the cathedral, museums and the station, with restaurants and the tram on your doorstep.
Saint-Pierre-des-Corps
early or late TGV transit nights
Functional TGV hub across the tracks, useful for logistics but you shuttle into Tours for meals and sights.
Amboise
second stay or split stay
Quieter château town base with Clos Lucé on your doorstep and Chenonceau and Chaumont without backtracking.
Think twice about
- Immediate station forecourt and Rue Edouard Vaillant edges
Scruffy and loitering heavy after midnight as a hotel outlook. Stay a few hundred metres into the old town instead.
- Sanitas
Large social housing district south of the station, not a tourist area, with poorer lighting at night and nothing to see.
- Chambray-lès-Tours and Tours Nord motorway hotel zones
Soulless chain hotel zones by retail parks and motorway junctions that require a car for every coffee.
Best restaurants in Tours
La Roche Le Roy
Tours gastronomic institution in an eighteenth century manor, with precise modern French cooking.
Arbore & Sens
One star destination dinner in historic Loches built on hyper local produce and inventive tasting menus.
L'Auberge du Bon Laboureur
Classic château country dining by Chenonceau, ideal for a slow lunch on a Chenonceau day.
Le Marché Gourmand
Market driven French cooking in the Halles quarter, the concierge all rounder for a serious dinner.
Dagobert
Central classic for Touraine dishes and Loire wines, reliable for a no gamble French dinner tonight.
Le Laurenty
Quieter centre restaurant noted for seafood alongside French classics and fairly priced wine bottles.
Les Gens Heureux
Packed bistronomy with a fast changing seasonal menu, imaginative cooking and lively energy.
Le Chien Jaune
Traditional French bistro near the old town action, reliable for groups and classic cooking.
Outdoor things to do in Tours
Loire à Vélo
Flat traffic free ride west from Tours via Savonnières to Villandry gardens, with Azay as an onward option.
Loire à Vélo
East ride through Montlouis wine country to Amboise, then onward by bike or train toward Chenonceau.
Hot-Air Balloon over the Châteaux
Sunrise or sunset balloon drift over châteaux and rivers, with mist and gardens seen in plan view.
Canoe on the Cher
Calm paddle on the Cher that passes under the arches of Chenonceau for its best photo angle.
Cave des Producteurs de Vouvray
Troglodyte wine cave day by bike, with vast galleries, a sensory Chenin trail and tastings in Vouvray.
Fontevraud-l'Abbaye
Western Loire day pairing Chinon fortress and Cabernet Franc with the great monastic city of Fontevraud.
Château de Blois
Eastern blockbuster day linking Blois and Chambord with Cheverny or the Chaumont garden festival.
Golf de Touraine
Main 18 hole course near Tours, set in a wooded estate around Château de la Touche.
Best hotels in Tours
Les Trésorières
True five star city flagship with pool and spa in a historic shell near the basilica and old town.
Oceania L'Univers Tours
Grand historic hotel on Place Jean Jaurès with pool, wellness area, fine dining and private parking.
Château d'Artigny
Five star château hotel south of Tours with spa, tennis and terrace, best as a countryside occasion stay.
Château de Pray
Château hotel option for an Amboise split stay, putting château town evenings on your doorstep.
Le Manoir Les Minimes
Manor below Amboise château with river views, named for luxury split stay nights in Amboise.
Le Clos d'Amboise
Amboise base for a split stay, close to Clos Lucé and Chenonceau days.
Hôtel du Cygne
Historic mid range hotel near the cathedral, an easy walk to Plumereau with traditional character.
Hôtel Du Manoir
Nineteenth century townhouse near the station on a quiet street, smart for early train château days.
Is Tours expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €90 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €185 a person |
| Splurge | €420 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Château de Chenonceau: weeks ahead
- Château de Villandry: a few days ahead
- Château de Chambord: weeks ahead
- Château Royal d'Amboise: weeks ahead
- Hot-Air Balloon over the Châteaux: weeks ahead
- Fontevraud-l'Abbaye: a few days ahead
- Château de Blois: weeks ahead
- Golf de Touraine: a few days ahead
- Book timed château tickets online for May to September, especially Chenonceau, Chambord, Clos Lucé and Chaumont.
- Book balloons for day one or two of your stay so weather cancellations leave fallback days.
- Book centre mid range hotels two to three months ahead for summer and reserve good bistros for dinner.
Is Tours safe?
- Do not swim in the Loire. Currents, sandbanks and sudden depth changes make it dangerous.
- Watch for opportunistic theft around the station and crowded terraces, and lock hire bikes to fixed objects.
- Drink driving limits are low and enforced around wine country. Taste and spit or take the train on Vouvray days.
Tours travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Do not try four or five châteaux in one day. Two is the ceiling and one done properly is better.
- Château de Tours is a photo exhibition pavilion, not a substitute for a real Loire château day.
- Skip generic Rue Nationale chains and shop the old town independents, Rue Colbert and Les Halles instead.
Getting around Tours: public transport and more
- Walk the centre, about 20 minutes from the Loire to the station. Use Fil Bleu tram Line A beyond that.
- Take the shuttle from Saint-Pierre-des-Corps to Tours Centre, about 5 minutes, rather than a taxi.
- Use TER trains for Chenonceau, Amboise, Blois and Chinon, bikes for Villandry and Vouvray, and a car or tour for Fontevraud.
Who Tours suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Great |
| Bachelorette parties | OK |
Make Tours your trip
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