Day 3: Wine tasting day trip to Saint-Emilion
On Day 3 of your trip to Bordeaux in 5 days without a car, I recommend taking your first day trip out of the city. Bordeaux is one of the most famous wine regions in France, and in the world. So when visiting Bordeaux, I definitely recommend doing a day trip outside of Bordeaux to the wine region. But you definitely don’t need a car for this day trip.
There are companies offering small-group tours from the centre of Bordeaux to the wine region. These trips include a driver, who will drive you to a selection of Chateaux in the region so you can try their wines. My trip also included a visit to the pretty village of Saint Emilion, which I’d definitely recommend. I did a small group tour with the company called Rustic Vines, and was happy with the trip.
We left Bordeaux about 10.30am in a small minibus. There were 5 people in our group, which was a good size. We stopped at three different Chateaux. The word ‘Chateaux’ makes you think of grand French castles – but in this region of France, all vineyards that produce wine are called ‘Chateaux’. So don’t expect huge grand buildings every time – although a lot of the houses and buildings are still very pretty.
Vineyard tours and wine tasting – with cheese and chocolate
All three of the Chateaux we visited gave us a similar experience. We’d start off having a tour of the Chateaux. And the owner talked about how they produce their wine. We saw the grapes growing on the vines in the fields. We saw the huge vats and barrels where the wine is aged, with a mix of oak and stainless steal barrels. And we also learned about how the different flavours of the wine came from the different grapes and different aging processes – for example, the tanins from aging the wine in oak barrels.
The wine tasting was generous, with plenty of wine to try! It was all red wine on this trip, so this is definitely a trip for people who enjoy red wine. We tended to start with a lighter, fruity red wine. And we’d move onto wines that were more complex and had higher tanins.
We had lunch in the grounds of one Chateaux, which was a lovely mix of cheese, meat, bread, and of course more wine.
And one of the wine tasting places gave us wine-filled chocolates to enjoy with the wine tasting to help bring out different flavours of the wine.
I really enjoyed all the wine tasting. I’m definitely not knowledgeable about wine at all. I enjoy a glass of red wine every so often, but I’m definitely no wine connoisseur! But I still really enjoyed the day trip. It was nice to learn about wine from people who are clearly so passionate about wine. And the variety of wines was really special. I was also excited to see a Hoopoe bird in one of the vineyards!
Saint-Emilion village
Our final stop of the day was the village of Saint-Emilion. It’s a small village, but it’s really pretty. The historic streets are lined with cafes and more wine shops. A lot of these wine shops offer wine tastings as well – just in case you haven’t had enough wine at this point!
The church in Saint-Emilion is really pretty, with impressive artwork in the cloisters.
My favourite part of Saint-Emilion was the view over the village and surrounding area. The village has a lot of hills, but it’s worth climbing to the top to be able to enjoy this stunning view. It’s a lovely place to end your day trip from Bordeaux to this beautiful area.
Day 4: Dune du Pilat and Arcachon day trip
On day 4 of your time in Bordeaux in 5 days without a car, I recommend making use of France’s great public transport to enjoy more of the area around Bordeaux. If you have decent weather, there are some lovely beaches and sand dunes not far from Bordeaux. To be honest, visiting Dune du Pilat might be slightly easier with a car. But it’s still easily possible to visit by public transport, so you can enjoy this day trip from Bordeaux without a car.
Getting to the Dune du Pilat from Bordeaux without a car
Just a short distance from the centre of Bordeaux is the Dune du Pilat. It’s the tallest sand dune in Europe, and it’s a truly impressive place to visit.
You can get the train from Bordeaux to Arcachon. The train takes about 50 minutes. And from Arcachon, you can take the bus line 3 to Dune du Pilat. It’s easy to find the bus stop as it’s just opposite the train station in Arcachon. And the buses have screens that tell you which stop you’re at – so you won’t miss the Dune du Pilat stop. The bus takes about 20-25 minutes from Arcachon train station to the Dune du Pilat.
When you get off the bus, just follow the path through the car park towards the visitor information buildings. There are toilets here, a place giving out maps, and also some places you can buy food. Or you can bring a picnic to enjoy sat on the sand dune.
Climbing the Dune du Pilat
Dune du Pilat is a truly impressively huge sand dune. It’s just amazing. You can try climbing up the sand – if you’re feeling energetic! Or, luckily, they put steps into the sand dune in the summer. So in the summer, you can climb the steps to get to the top of the sand dune much more easily. It’s still a slightly tiring climb, but a lot easier on the steps than it is to climb the sand.
The views from the top are just amazing. You can look back and see the sand dune with the dark green trees in the background.
Looking out to sea is lovely as well. It was a slightly cloudy day when I visited, but even on a cloudy day the sea was blue.
I enjoyed walking along the top of the sand dune, parallel to the sea. It was fairly crowded on the sand dune near the steps. But you quickly lost a lot of the people just by walking 5-10 minutes away. Then you can find a more peaceful spot to sit on the sand and enjoy the scenery.
I spent several hours here, and easily could have spent longer. But I wanted to ensure I had enough time to enjoy the town of Arcachon before getting the train back to Bordeaux, so I got the bus back to Arcachon.
Arcachon town and beaches
Arcachon is a really pretty town, so it’s worth spending a bit of time here. There are shops and restaurants, and a street market on weekends as well. The buildings are very different to Bordeaux – they’re much more colourful. The architecture almost reminded me of Miami South Beach in Florida.
As well as a pretty town, Arcachon has lovely beaches as well. It only takes a few minutes to walk from the town centre to the beaches. There’s a huge stretch of golden sand. And there’s a pier as well, which is mostly used for boat trips, but you can walk to the end of the pier for great views back over the beach and sea.
I really enjoyed relaxing on the beach at Arcachon. There are lots of cafes and restaurants just behind the beach, or you can buy some food and drink to take onto the beach as well.
My day trip to Dune du Pilat and Arcachon was definitely a highlight of my trip to Bordeaux in 5 days, and easy to do without a car.
Day 5: La Rochelle day trip
On the final day of your trip to Bordeaux in 5 days, I recommend taking another day trip out of Bordeaux to La Rochelle. You can easily get the train to La Rochelle from Bordeaux. It’s a direct train and takes about 2 hours. In general, I try not to travel more than 2 hours each way for a day trip, so La Rochelle was at the limit of how far I’d want to travel from Bordeaux. But the train was comfortable, with reserved seats, so it was a relaxing way to travel.
La Rochelle Maritime Festival – the Fêtes Maritimes de La Rochelle
I visited La Rochelle during a 4-day maritime festival in June. To be honest, it was a slight coincidence that this festival was happening during my trip – I booked my flights before I knew about the festival. But once I’d researched it online, I knew that I wanted to go to La Rochelle at this time.
The festival was really good fun. There were loads of different, impressive boats in the marina. It was completely free to walk around the marina and admire the boats from the outside. You could also pay to go onboard some of the boats as well to have a look around. I spent over an hour looking around at all the boats from all around the world.
La Rochelle waterfront and lunch
One of the main attractions of La Rochelle is the waterfront area. There are historic towers marking the entrance to La Rochelle harbour. And inside the harbour walls are more lovely boats, and also a lovely promenade where you can walk next to the water.
The waterfront has a great selection of cafes, bars and restaurants along the edge of the water. It’s a lovely place to sit for lunch, with a glass of wine or beer. Lots of the restaurants serve seafood, which is a popular meal choice in this part of France. I chose to have a salad instead, which was really nice.
La Rochelle town
Away from the seafront, the historic town of La Rochelle is really pretty as well. There are narrow streets with shops and cafes. It’s not a huge town, but it’s a cute place to wander around and browse the shops. There are plenty of cafes here as well, including several places selling crepes. I had an amazing crepe filled with chocolate sauce and almonds, with an espresso coffee as well.
After exploring the town, I went back to the waterfront to walk along there a bit more. It was a really beautiful area, with the historic buildings, the various boats, and the colourful flags for the boat festival.
I thought La Rochelle worked well as a day trip from Bordeaux by train, but I’d have liked to have spend longer in La Rochelle as well. I’m already keen to book another trip to La Rochelle and do some day trips from there.
Hope you enjoyed my ultimate guide to Bordeaux in 5 days without a car, with some great day trip ideas too. You can check out my more detailed guide to day trips from Bordeaux without a car. If you’d like to explore more of France, check out my guides to 4 days exploring the French Riviera from Nice, the top day trips from Nice, and the beautiful village of Eze.
