DESTINATIONS BORDEAUX CRUISE
FAR LEFT: Place de
la Bourse, Bordeaux
LEFT: Ama-
Waterways offers
cycling tours of
Bordeaux
in Libourne to coincide with its farmers’ market, then has an evening tour to Bergerac. At Blaye, tours mostly visit a
17th-century fortress near to where the boats dock. CroisiEurope also offers a coach trip along the narrow Corniche Road to the Gironde Estuary, followed by a tour of Bourg, a small town at the confluence of the Garonne and Dordogne dating back to Roman times. Clients visiting Blaye with APT
and Viking can opt for a tour to Cognac to taste the world- famous brandy that takes its name from the town. On Viking’s add-on excursion (which is included with APT), passengers can try their hand at blending the spirit on a visit to one of the Cognac houses.
Passengers can try their hand at blending the famous spirit on visits to one of the Cognac houses
Passengers can go hiking from Cadillac with Scenic or learn how wine barrels are made on a visit to a cooperage in Pauillac with APT. APT’s Grand Bordeaux river cruise also includes a tour and tasting at a caviar estate. Prices start from £2,295 per person for eight nights departing September 9, including flights and UK and overseas transfers.
In Bordeaux itself, highlights include the stunning miroir d’eau (mirror of water), the opera house, Place Gambetta, where 364 people lost their heads during the revolution, and the classical lines of the Place de la Bourse. It’s pleasant to explore the narrow alleys and 18th-century architecture alone but river cruise lines have plenty of guided tours. Uniworld has a complimentary
tour of the city after dark, as well as guided walking or biking tours by day. AmaWaterways also offers walking or biking tours of the city, while Scenic has a ‘shop with the chef’ trip. CroisiEurope and Viking have
full-day tours to Arcachon, an hour’s drive from Bordeaux, where passengers can taste oysters and see the Dune du Pilat, which at about 110 metres high is Europe’s tallest sand dune.
LEFT: European
Waterways’ Rosa barge
58
travelweekly.co.uk 9 June 2016
w BEYOND BORDEAUX These cruises are mostly for seven nights, but a few companies have combined rivers to create longer itineraries. APT has a 15-day itinerary that pairs its one-week Bordeaux cruise with seven nights on the Rhône, from £6,595, departing September 23, including flights and transfers. Uniworld combines a week on the Seine, sailing from Paris, with its Bordeaux cruise. The price, from £4,899 cruise-only, includes high-speed TGV transfer between the two cities. AmaWaterways, meanwhile, has a 13-day itinerary
that packages a one-week voyage with three nights in Paris and two in the Loire Valley. CroisiEurope goes further,
combining three cruises – four nights on the Seine, five on the Loire and five nights sailing from Bordeaux – into a 15-day itinerary. The company, which has two
vessels sailing from Bordeaux, has one-week cruises but also five and six-day itineraries that skip Cadillac and spend little or no time in Bordeaux. Prices start from £652, cruise-only, for five days, but for an extra £145, clients can have the seven-night cruise. Shearings packages
CroisiEurope’s five or six-night cruises with coach, rail or air travel from the UK, priced from £899 for an eight-day holiday departing July 24 or August 14, including ferry and coach travel and two overnight hotels. Leger Holidays pairs a five-night CroisiEurope cruise from Bordeaux with a coach tour of the Loire Valley, from £1,499 departing August 22. For something completely
different, barge holiday specialist European Waterways has a six- night canal cruise from Castets- en-Dorthe, about 29 miles from Bordeaux, to Boé, visiting French villages and towns for cheese, wine and Armagnac tasting. The eight-passenger barge
Rosa also takes passengers across the Plan Canal d’Agen, one of the longest aqueducts in France. Prices start from £2,650 per person cruise-only.
PICTURES: GETTY IMAGES; AMAWATERWAYS; VIKING RIVER CRUISES; ALAMY; ANIBAL TREJO
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