Leaving Your Trip in TOURS

This page offers help (concrete or informational) on leaving your trip. Topics include...

1. Where you Leave Your Trip (see immediately below)
2. Our “Access Packages,” designed to help you to do so.
3. Suggestions on how to time your ongoing travel, whether you are having us arrange it, or doing it yourself.
4. Service information regarding train travel from your trip end location.
5. Suggested post-trip visits, especially when these are not geographically obvious, but are rendered economical and convenient by direct rail connections.
6. Hopefully helpful hints for those setting up their own travel from the trip.

If you wish to arrange some or all of your travel through us, please tell us what by means of this response questionnaire, designed to collect all the information we need to be able to book your travel.


1. WHERE and WHEN Do You Leave Your Trip?

Your trip disbands on Friday afternoon, upon arrival in Tours, at the end of a full (and ambitious) riding day. We recommend the night there (and propose it in our Access Package — see “Timing Your Trip,” section 3, below). Even with the full day, however, you are in time to return to Paris if you prefer to do so, as trains run very late.

If you wish to arrange your own ongoing travel (in other words, you do not want to set up any ongoing travel arrangements through us), a couple of hints regarding ongoing travel are offered at the bottom of this page. Otherwise...


2. Our ACCESS PACKAGES
as of June 13, 2008

The closest intercontinental airport is Paris’ Charles de Gaulle. Our “Access Package” includes a night in Tours, and a TGV rail ticket to Paris or direct to the airport. Our London “Access Package” includes a train to London.

Base (Starting) Access Package Price: 82€
Special “Ride the Bike Train” Friday Ticket to Paris: 10€, or 25€ in 1st class
If you are a North American traveller, the $ price (US or Canadian) on your price chart applies until 35 days prior to trip departure. Otherwise euro prices are transcribed to your invoice in its currency, converted at the exchange rate of the day on which the package is requested (rounded to the nearest whole dollar). Current “mid-market” rates can be consulted from the site we use for conversion. We use the mid-market rate on the day of conversion, and add 2% to cover currency broker exchange commissions (our conversion rates are thus as good as, or better than, any you could obtain, including via your credit card, unless you are a professional currency trader).

Availability is normally guaranteed until 35 days prior to trip start (payment received by us). Within 35 days, availability must be confirmed, and costs may be slightly higher. Some extra-cost options also have higher prices if ordered w/in 35 days.

Included in the Regular Access Package:

• A hotel night in Tours, based on shared occupancy. Typically, at least some of your past weeks’ travelling companions will also be staying over, and you will know the city a bit at this point, having passed through previously in the middle of your trip. If you have no pressing reason to travel on, we suggest you stay and enjoy the town.
  Our usual Tours hotel is a very simple place: private baths, but the rooms are small and quirky. We choose it because it represents good value, and is excellently located, which is especially important in Tours. If you prefer a more luxurious final night, we offer an upgraded hotel, below (“Options Offered at an Extra Cost”).
• Breakfast if you have time / get up for it.
• 2nd class train tickets to Paris, or direct to Charles de Gaulle airport, via TGV high-speed train. Tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangable once ordered. 1st class or modifiable 2nd class tickets are available at additional cost.
• Seat reservations on the TGV high-speed train.
• A printed schedule / itinerary, highlighting any connections.
  

Included in the “Ride the Bike Train” Access Package: a Friday evening 2nd class train ticket to Paris. Friday night’s lodging is not included.
If you opt for this, you will travel to Paris via cycle train on Friday evening (a 2'40" trip, instead of 1'10" on the TGV), and secure the bike(s) in your charge at the Austerlitz train station upon arrival. We can help you set up Paris lodging if desired.


Options Offered at an Extra Cost (subject to availability)
Prices are in addition to the “Base” Access Package Price. For a general discussion of train upgrades, see here. Topics include the relative comfort of first versus second class, and different types of accommodation available on overnight trains.

• Tickets to London. Add 69€ if you are also purchasing tickets from London at the start of your trip, 99€ if not, or if you prefer a changeable ticket (in 1st cl., add 99€ or 145€; 1st class tickets include meal service).
  A Paris stop-over is available, if desired, for an additional 15€ (no charge if you “Ride the Bike Train” to Paris.
• Higher fare code tickets which are exchangeable locally: 15€.
  These tickets are exchangeable at any station, on a space-available basis, at any time until the train’s departure, for free if the exchange is made prior to the date of travel, or for 10€ on the date of travel. Cost of either exchange is 10€ higher if you make it through us. Tickets are refundable less 20% before the train’s departure.
• First class train tickets to Paris (in lieu of 2nd class): +15€.
  This is a discount upgrade price, not always available. Full fare upgrade (the resulting ticket is then exchangeable and refundable as above) is 49€.
• Upgraded hotel in Tours: +20€ single, 41 or 51€ double or twin (depending on avail. room).
  In making your request, please tell us if you would accept the “regular” as a back-up, or would prefer to make your own reservation should our “upgrade” not be available.
• Tickets on the Paris airport train, to Charles de Gaulle or Orly from anywhere in the city. Follow this link for details.
  These are not necessary if your TGV from Tours goes directly to the airport.
  

Alternate Arrangements, in lieu of our usual packages (subject to availability)
Prices are complete (in other words, they are not in addition to the “Base” Access Package Price)

• Friday evening train to Paris, 39€ 2nd class, 59€ 1st class.
• Overnight train to Madrid or Barcelona. Price includes a berth in a 4-person sleeper cabin. 139€.
  Upgrades to double and single cabins are available, either regular or deluxe. A berth in a double cabin costs 249€, and a private single cabin costs up to 328€, though discount rates are often available. For deluxe cabins, add 35€ per person double, 45€ single. Discount rates offer up to 30% off if you are willing to accept non-modifiable tickets.
• Overnight train to Lyon (connections to the French Alps or Geneva): 79€ including a couchette. Modifiable tickets are available for 99€, “Comfort Couchette” tickets for 129€.
• Hotel in Tours (additional nights, or without rail tickets), including breakfast: 36€ / person shared occupancy, 55€ single.
  Shared occupancy rate guaranteed to solo travellers willing to share on the post-trip Friday night only.

3. TIMING Your Trip

If we may influence your thinking on the topic of timing.... Tours is a beautiful city. And, though you will already have spent a night there in the middle of the trip, you will be grateful for a second. If you have the flexibility to do so, try to schedule your ongoing travel for Saturday. This especially makes sense if you have a Saturday flight from Charles de Gaulle, and will not have enough time in Paris to make the transfer there worthwhile....

Like airplanes, trains from Tours require reservations. You must not only tell us where you wish to go, but at what time of day you wish to travel. If you are headed straight for the airport, allow ample time to connect to a flight. The airline is not responsible for train delays, and, though these are rare, they can happen. Moreover, it can take a while to get from train to check-in counter.


4. Service Information
Schedules are approximate – exact timetables can be consulted at http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm.
Best trains are mentioned. Others are slower or have multiple connections.
Most main line trains departing Tours leave from a suburban station called St-Pierre-des-Corps.
Shuttle trains go to St-Pierre-des-Corps from the downtown station 15 minutes before every departure, or the trip by taxi takes about the same. Any direct trains departing from downtown are explicitly mentioned below.

• To Paris. Travel time is 75 minutes, trains run at 5a, 7a, then hourly.
  There are direct trains from the downtown station at 6:30p on Friday afternoon, and at 8a and noon on Saturday, without the connection at St-Pierre-des-Corps.
• To Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport. Travel time is 2 hrs. Trains operate at 7:45a, 9a, 10a, 1p & 4:30p.
  The 9a requires a change of train, but offers essentially the same travel time.
• To London. 8a, 10a, 1p, 4:30p, with a connection in Lille. Trip time is ± 6 hours.
  Frequent alternate service via Paris, but a station change in Paris is required: Gare Montparnasse to Gare du Nord. Travel time is equivalent, despite the station change.

5. Suggested POST-TRIP VISITS

An excellent overnight “Hotel Train,” the Francisco de Goya, operates to Madrid. Daylight service is also available, to Madrid, Barcelona, or the South of France, but it is an all-day trip to any of these. The Normandy beaches can be reached in about 3 hours.


6. Hints on TRAVELLING INDEPENDENTLY After the Trip
Guests subscribing to an “Access Package” need not read this section.

See also “Timing Your Trip” and “Service Information,” above, as either of these may additionally help.

We gladly provide travel consulting (schedule or routing information) concerning post-trip individual travel. In particular, we have invested a great deal to become railway experts. Our service fees are reasonable: a 20€ charge for all but the most complex projects – or the most simple (for instance, only a 10€ charge applies if the service is limited to the preparation of a routine rail ticket). You will generally find them well-justified by the time they will save you in research, standing on line, overpaying for your tickets, or all three.

But, for some, this type of research is fun. So, here are some hints, intended to start off hardened “do-it-yourselfers.”

Trains. Schedules for all routes can be consulted on this web site:
http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm

Tours is served by TGV (high-speed train) to northern France, including direct service to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport. Connections are available to Brussels, Brugge, Amsterdam.... Travelling to the south of France, or to the Alps, is also easy via TGV connections in Lyon. And mainline trains go south to the Basque Country and northern Spain, with connections further south.

Planes. Tours has a tiny airport. Ryanair serves London Stansted from Tours once a day at this writing. Another Ryanair airport, Poitiers (also serving London Stansted) is within an hour by train. Otherwise, Paris has more air service than you want or need.


If you wish to arrange some or all of your travel through us, please tell us what by means of this response questionnaire, designed to collect all the information we need to be able to book your travel.