Bordeaux, uncorked.
Grand cru châteaux in the Médoc, Saint-Émilion’s limestone cellars, oysters on Arcachon Bay and long lunches by the Garonne. What each tour is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
Seven ways to taste Bordeaux.
First visit or fifth, these carry a Bordeaux trip: a morning in the Saint-Émilion cellars, a Médoc château with the long gravel drive, the oyster shacks out at Cap Ferret, a slow lunch by the river.
Cité du Vin Entry Ticket and Wine Tasting
Skip the ticket desk and tour Bordeaux’s Cité du Vin with a digital guide, sensory exhibits, panoramic Belvedere views, and 1 included wine.
From $27 per person
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★ 4.9Traveller favouriteFrom Bordeaux: St-Emilion Day Tour with Tastings and LunchFrom $177714 reviews
An hour east, eight centuries deep.
Leave after breakfast for Saint-Émilion, where a single limestone hill holds a church carved whole from the rock, cobbled lanes barely a barrel wide, and cellars where Merlot has aged since the monks. Taste, walk the ramparts, and be back on the Garonne by evening.
Left bank or right bank?
Everyone asks it first: which way do you point the car. Cabernet and grand architecture across the Garonne, or Merlot and medieval stone to the east, or skip the drive and taste in the city. Three ways to spend a wine day, each one already reviewed and priced.
Grand cru classé
The left bank
4 hours 30 minutes (approx.) · from $114 · 1,415 reviews
Cross the Garonne and point the car north into the Médoc: Margaux, Pauillac, Saint-Julien, gravel soils and firm Cabernet, the famous gated châteaux lined along the Route des Châteaux. Two estates, a proper lunch, and the grand names you already know from the label.
See the Médoc tours →
Merlot & medieval
The right bank
4h 30m · from $112 · 1,581 reviews
East instead, to Saint-Émilion: a medieval village of limestone and cobbles, a church cut whole from the rock, smaller family estates pouring softer, riper Merlot. The wine day people remember most, and the easiest to fall for on a first visit.
See the Saint-Émilion tours →
No car needed
The city cellars
1h 30m · from $53 · 184 reviews
Skip the drive and taste in town: a sommelier-led masterclass, left bank against right bank glass by glass, or a wine and cheese flight in a vaulted cellar. Best when you want to understand Bordeaux before you go chasing it through the vines.
See the tasting classes →
The stone glows after dark.
Floodlit along the quays, the eighteenth-century facades throw their reflection across the water mirror, wine bars fill the Saint-Pierre lanes, and a dinner cruise slides out under the Pont de pierre. Bordeaux saves some of its best hours for after sunset.
Lunch is a two-hour affair.
Bordeaux eats slowly and well: canelés warm from the copper mould, Arcachon oysters with a glass of Entre-deux-Mers, entrecôte grilled over vine cuttings. If you book three food hours in the city, make them these.
See the vines from a sidecar.
Ride out to the châteaux in a classic 2CV or the sidecar of a vintage motorbike, vineyard rows blurring past, an elegant and slightly ridiculous way to reach a tasting. Sort the driver; you just hold your glass.
Eighteenth-century Bordeaux, intact.
The grand crescent of the Place de la Bourse, the merchant houses of the Chartrons, the golden facades strung along the quays. Bordeaux rebuilt itself in limestone during the wine boom and barely changed since, and a good guide reads it like a ledger.
One city, a whole wine country.
The old town is walkable in a morning; the rest is a short drive or a river cruise away. Saint-Émilion for the medieval cellars. The Médoc for the grand names. Arcachon for oysters and the great dune.
Book by the kind of day.
A dozen ways to spend a day in and around Bordeaux. Pick the one that fits, and every tour behind it is already reviewed and priced.
A short drive, a very good day.
The wine country starts twenty minutes from the quays. Medieval Saint-Émilion, the grand names of the Médoc, oysters and the great dune at Arcachon, all close enough to leave after breakfast and be back for dinner.
A weekend in Bordeaux, sorted.
You won’t drink all of Bordeaux in one trip; you can absolutely do the right three days. This is the sequence we’d hand a friend landing at Mérignac tomorrow.
Day 1
The city on foot
Coffee on Place de la Bourse, the water mirror, the long walk down Rue Sainte-Catherine, canelés when your feet give out. An easy first day inside the Port of the Moon.
Plan day one →
Day 2
Right bank, Saint-Émilion
The drive east, the monolithic church, a cellar tasting under the limestone, lunch among the vines. The medieval wine day everyone remembers.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Left bank grand crus
The Route des Châteaux through the Médoc, Margaux and Pauillac, the famous gates, two estates and a proper lunch. Book the châteaux well ahead.
Plan the Médoc day →
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