Chinon and Bourgueil Wineries Day Trip with Tastings from Tours

The price is $174 per person for eight hours with an English-speaking driver-guide and transport in a Mercedes minivan capped at eight guests. Both winery visits and both tastings are included, one in the Chinon area and one in Bourgueil, plus the visit to Chinon town itself. Booking works on a reserve now pay later basis, and the listing warns the day is likely to sell out.

What you pay for separately

Meals and drinks are not included, so the two-hour lunch break in Chinon runs on your own budget. Tips are extra, and there is no hotel pickup, you walk to the meeting point. The current rating stands at 4.9 from 45 reviews.

The practical rules, in one list:

• Two Loire Valley winery visits and tastings included
• Visit to Chinon town with a guided stroll and free time
• Driver-guide and Mercedes minivan transport
• Minimum of 2 adults for the day to run
• 18 and over only, not suitable for pregnant travellers
• Not suitable for wheelchair users
• Bring a passport or ID card
• No pets

Free cancellation applies up to 24 hours before the start, which makes booking early low risk even though the listing flags sell-outs.

The first stop, after roughly 70 minutes in the van, is a traditional winery in the Chinon area. The visit runs about 1.5 hours and covers wine production from the grape to the bottle, a look at the vineyards and an explanation of the area's soil diversity, which the listing credits for the wine's delicate and fruity taste. The tasting that follows is where the chinon wine tour earns its name: fine local reds, with the guide explaining how to detect different notes in the glass.

Your two hours in Chinon

A 15-minute van hop brings you into the town itself for two hours of lunch, a guided tour and free time. Chinon is a small town surrounded by vineyards, with preserved medieval half-timbered houses and Renaissance townhouses along its streets. The listing suggests trying local specialties such as pork rillettes or doing a spot of shopping.

This town break is the structural advantage of the day: you are not eating a rushed sandwich outside a cellar door, you get a proper sit-down lunch wherever you choose in town.

Remember the tasting rule before you get there. In France, snacks are usually not provided during wine tastings, to preserve the purity of the wine's flavor. The listing recommends having a good breakfast or lunch beforehand, and on this day the lunch break falls between the two tastings, which helps.

After Chinon, the van covers 30 minutes to Bourgueil, west of Tours alongside Chinon in red-wine country. Both appellations work mainly with Cabernet Franc, and the day is built to show that grape across two neighbouring terroirs. The Bourgueil winery visit and tasting lasts about 1.5 hours, matching the morning session in length.

The listing describes Bourgueil as a region known for its Renaissance castles and its wines, though this day enters no château. The tasting here is of rounded red wine, and the route back to Tours, about 65 minutes, runs through Cabernet Franc vineyards. Expect a short morning tasting, a long lunch and a fuller afternoon session, which is a sensible order if you are driving a rental later.

Two things worth noting for the afternoon. First, dress in layers you would wear in town, the pack gives no cellar temperature for these stops. Second, this is an easy-difficulty day, with the walking limited to winery visits and flat town streets.

The Loire Valley wine board maps Chinon, Bourgueil and the other Touraine red-wine appellations.

First-time visitors often do not expect it, so the listing spells it out. Snacks are usually not served at tastings in France because hosts want you to taste the wine's flavor without interference. On this trip that means two 1.5-hour tastings on an essentially empty stomach unless you plan around it.

How to plan your eating

The fix is built into the schedule. Eat a good breakfast before the morning start, then use the two-hour Chinon break for a real meal, not a snack. Pork rillettes are the local suggestion, and a town of half-timbered houses and Renaissance townhouses will have no shortage of tables.

Two glasses of wine before lunch and a full meal in between is a very different afternoon from two tastings back to back.

If food with your wine is a priority rather than a nice-to-have, two other catalog days do include it. The Morning Loire Valley Wine Tour and Food Pairing in Vouvray serves cheese, charcuterie and local snacks with at least ten wines, and the Vouvray Vineyard Tour and Wine Tasting at a Family Winery pairs its six wines with Loire fish rillettes, charcuterie, cheese and desserts.

Book this if you are staying in Tours, want a full day of red wine, and have already seen or have no interest in the big châteaux. The small group of eight keeps things personal, and the English-language driver-guide handles the roads between appellations, so nobody in your party draws the driving straw. Adults travelling as a pair or a small group of friends fit the format well.

Know the exclusions before you book. The day is 18 and over only, it is not suitable for pregnant travellers, and wheelchair users are not accommodated. It needs a minimum of two adults to run, so a solo traveller cannot book it as is.

Pets are not allowed, and you must carry a passport or ID card on the day. There is no hotel pickup, so factor the walk to the Tours tourism office into your morning.

Difficulty is rated easy and the day suits most fitness levels. The pace is the real difference from a castle day: no timed entries, no queues, just two wineries, a town and a lot of Cabernet Franc.

Against the rest of the catalog, this is the lowest-priced full-day option from Tours and the only one with two wineries and no castle entry. From Paris, the day trips are longer, pricier and castle-led, with wine as a side note except for one wine-first outlier. The table below puts it next to the closest alternatives.

Figures current for Q4 2026.