Loire Valley tips and advice

It’s an incredibly rich historic area. It used to be one of the most powerful regions in France and it’s full of castles. Every town, it seems, has its own grand castle. Mainstream tourism for the Loire valley is basically going on coaches and moving from castle to castle for a week. We tend to suggest and promote smaller and privately-owned chateaux rather than the tourist traps – there’s a nicer experience to be had elsewhere.

A lot of people who come on our vacation are a bit nervous – whether that’s because they don’t cycle very much or they don’t travel very much – so it’s very important for us to be hands on with them through the whole process of the trip. The whole nature of a cycling vacation can be quite intimidating, especially when you’re moving from town to town – the navigation is quite important to your vacation. So knowing that you’ve got the support there (from us) is very important. We use a Smartphone app called Ride with GPS which is becoming the new industry standard. It talks to you like a car sat nav. Guests can download their route onto their phone and then they don’t have to use their data overseas. We also have the option of paper maps and can supply the French equivalent of OS Maps, which are called IGN.