Bordeaux
Bordeaux is the wine capital with the city to match, 1,810 hectares of listed eighteenth-century streets and the châteaux a day trip out. Oysters standing at the Saturday market, and two hours from Paris by TGV.
Bordeaux in a nutshell
Bordeaux: what to expect
Our travellers have planned 311,000+ stops in France on Stippl. That is where the numbers here come from.
Bordeaux's Port of the Moon is the largest urban World Heritage area on earth, 1,810 hectares of it, and you can walk the core end to end in forty minutes. The Miroir d'Eau lies in front of the Place de la Bourse, two centimetres of water over three and a half thousand square metres, alternating between mirror and mist. The Cité du Vin explains wine as a culture rather than pouring it, the Bassins des Lumières projects inside a submarine base, and Saint-Émilion is a day out on a limestone hill.
The French south-west is planned as one region, and nowhere else in France is. A traveller with Bordeaux on the itinerary is far likelier than average to also have La Rochelle, Tours, Carcassonne, Biarritz or Toulouse: no other French destination produces six partners that strong. Bordeaux also sits on the longest trips we measure in the country, and it is planned further ahead than anywhere else in France.
Two nights in the city, and put the wine outside it. The châteaux are a day trip and the city keeps the Cité du Vin, the Chartrons bars and Saturday oysters at the Marché des Capucins. Come in May, June or September if the vineyards are the point, because four in ten of our arrivals fall in July and August at twenty-seven degrees, when the châteaux are quiet. And skip the winter: the mirror everyone photographs is drained from November to April.
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Download the appWho Bordeaux is for
Wine travellers, obviously
The wine itself is a day trip: the city has the Cité du Vin, the Chartrons bars and the Halles, and the châteaux are outside it.
Architecture and history people
1,810 hectares of listed eighteenth-century city is a different proposition from a listed quarter.
Anyone on a south-west loop
Bordeaux sits on the long French trips, with La Rochelle, Biarritz, Toulouse and Carcassonne as its partners, and most give it 2 nights.
Weekenders from Paris
Two hours by TGV, and the reason the city's tourism changed in the last decade.
Cyclists
Flat, compact, and with a river path and vineyard routes running straight out of the centre.
Maybe not for you: winter visitors, and not only for the weather: the Miroir d'Eau, the thing on every postcard, is drained from roughly November to April, and the riverfront is a different place without it.
The best time to visit Bordeaux
Shoulder
May to June and September to October
The water mirror running, the vineyards working and the city at its most walkable. September is the vendanges, the harvest, and the châteaux are busy with it; some restrict visits.
High summer
July and August
Hot, the quays full, and the August closures that empty the independent restaurants for weeks. Bastille Day fireworks over the Garonne on 14 July, and the Fête le Vin along the quays in late June in even years.
Winter
November to April
Mild, wet, cheap and the mirror dry. The wine trade is quiet, the Cité du Vin is not, and a winter weekend here is a food and museum one.
- July is the month most travellers plan Bordeaux for on Stippl, and France as a whole is planned about 72 days ahead. 12.0% of Bordeaux plans are made inside a fortnight, which works outside the harvest and the wine festival.
- September is the harvest, and the châteaux are working. The vendanges is the month the wine trade is most alive and the reason our own travellers name September specifically; some estates restrict visits during it, so book the tour rather than turning up.
- Bordeaux Fête le Vin runs four days along the quays in late June in even years. It alternates with the river festival in odd years; either one fills the riverside and the hotels for the weekend.
- The Chartrons market is a Sunday-morning fixture. The quayside food market is the best in the city and it runs every week; a Sunday in Bordeaux starts there and the shops elsewhere are shut anyway.
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Things to do in Bordeaux
Photo by Pierre Ducher via Unsplash
Photo by Valentine Kulikov via PexelsThe Miroir d'Eau
Stand on the two centimetres of water in front of the Place de la Bourse, alternating between mirror and mist, free, from April to October. The evening, when the facade is lit and the mirror works.
The Cité du Vin
Spend two hours in the museum about wine as a global culture rather than a tasting room, about €23 with a glass at the top-floor belvedere included. Tram B to the end.
Oysters at the Marché des Capucins
Eat a dozen with a glass of white and a small hot sausage, standing, before nine on a Saturday morning, about €15. The market runs from six; Chez Jean-Mi is the counter.
Saint-Émilion
Take the train thirty-five minutes to the medieval wine village on a limestone hill, with the monolithic church carved out of the rock beneath it, about €10 for the church tour. A château tasting is about €15; book in September.
The Bassins des Lumières
See the immersive projections inside the wartime submarine base, the largest digital art centre of its kind, about €15. Book the slot; the evening ones are the atmosphere.
The Dune du Pilat
Take the train an hour to Arcachon and the bus to Europe's tallest sand dune, free to climb, and eat the oysters from the bay at a cabin in the villages. Sunset from the top.
The neighbourhoods of Bordeaux
Saint-Pierre
Pedestrian heart, the Bourse
The historic heart and the city's birthplace: almost entirely pedestrian, centred on Place de la Bourse, the Miroir d'Eau and Place du Parlement, with hotels in the eighteenth-century houses. For first visits and for the façades on foot.
Everything the listing is about from the door, and the tourist prices.
Chartrons
Wine merchants, antiques, Sunday market
The old wine-merchants' quarter: antique shops, wine bars, galleries and the Sunday riverside market along Rue Notre-Dame, with boutique hotels and apartments. For foodies and for drinking Bordeaux rather than reading about it.
The best bars and the market, and a tram to the centre.
Saint-Michel
Basilica, Capucins market, bars
Cosmopolitan and loud around the Gothic basilica, with the Capucins covered market and a flea market at the weekend, and the cheapest central beds. For budget travellers and nightlife.
The market and thirty bars in a few streets, and the noise until late.
Triangle d'Or
Opera house, boutiques, mansions
The grandest quarter: the opera house, luxury boutiques, eighteenth-century mansions and the vast Place des Quinconces, with the grand hotels. For a splurge and for the smartest streets.
The Grand Théâtre and the best restaurants, and the prices to match.
Bacalan
Reinvented docks, Cité du Vin
The reinvented industrial docks: the Cité du Vin, the Bassins des Lumières in a submarine base and dockside restaurants, with new hotels and hostels. For modern Bordeaux and for the two newest sights on foot.
The new city and the wine museum, and a tram ride to the old one.
La Bastide
Right bank, the skyline view
The right bank opposite the centre: the botanical garden, the Darwin creative campus in old barracks and the best view of the UNESCO skyline, with a few hotels and a hostel. For quiet and for the photograph.
The view nobody else sleeps with, and a bridge or a tram for everything.
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Where to stay in Bordeaux
Stay in Saint-Pierre for a first visit: the pedestrian heart puts the Place de la Bourse, the river and every restaurant within a walk, and the tram is on the edge of it. Most people give Bordeaux 2 nights on Stippl, with a third for Saint-Emilion. Book earlier than anywhere else in France; a quarter of Bordeaux trips are planned six months out.
Saint-Pierre
€80–170
Small hotels and apartments in eighteenth-century houses, €100 to €200, on car-free streets.
Chartrons
€80–170
Boutique hotels and apartments among the wine bars, €110 to €220, with the Sunday market outside.
Saint-Michel
€55–120
The cheapest central beds, hostels €30 to €45 and plain hotels €70 to €110, around the basilica.
Triangle d'Or
The grand hotels and palaces, from €300, and design hotels in the mansions, €180 to €300.
Bacalan
New hotels and a big hostel in the docks, €35 a bed to €150 a room, by the Cité du Vin.
La Bastide
€60–130
A few apartments and one or two hotels on the right bank, €80 to €150, quiet and a tram from the centre.
What to eat in Bordeaux
A small fluted cake, black and caramelised outside, custardy inside; rum and vanilla
Rib steak with a red-wine and shallot sauce, traditionally grilled over vine cuttings
Arcachon oysters, eaten with a small hot sausage and white wine
Lamprey stewed in red wine, a genuinely local and genuinely divisive dish
Salt-marsh lamb from the Médoc, with a protected designation
Rolled, spiced pork stomach, sliced cold, a Médoc charcuterie speciality
The 17th-century almond version, flat and chewy, unrelated to the Parisian sandwich
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Bordeaux customs and what not to do
Wine talk is unpretentious
Technical but not showy: naming an appellation rather than a grape is normal, and asking for a recommendation by price bracket is completely ordinary in any bar à vin.
The city was scrubbed clean
Not rebuilt: the blackened city of thirty years ago is the same buildings cleaned, which is why the stone is uniformly pale and why the locals are proud of it.
Châteaux need appointments
Not drop-ins: most of the Médoc requires booking, some of it days ahead, and turning up at a gate is refused. Saint-Émilion's village cellars are the walk-in option.
Sunday is the Chartrons market
The quayside market is the Sunday morning, and Sunday afternoon closes most of the centre; the Capucins market is Saturday, and the oysters there are eaten standing.
Do
- Check whether the Miroir d'Eau is running before you plan the photograph
- Buy the Cité du Vin ticket with a valid TBM ticket in hand for the twenty percent
- Eat oysters at the Capucins on a Saturday morning, early
- Book Médoc châteaux ahead; Saint-Émilion is more walk-in friendly
Don't
- Expect the great châteaux to be in the city; they are not
- Get off at Saint-Émilion station expecting the village; it is two kilometres uphill
- Buy cannelés to eat tomorrow
- Book La Bastide for the location
What a Bordeaux trip costs
Budget
€55–95
Hostel dorm, market lunch, tram, free monuments.
Mid-range
€130–200
Three-star in Saint-Pierre, a bistro dinner, the Cité du Vin.
High-end
€300+
Hotel in the Triangle d'Or, a starred kitchen, a private château tour.
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Fun facts about Bordeaux
Bordeaux's Port of the Moon is the largest urban World Heritage area on the planet. The listing of 2007 covers 1,810 hectares and more than 350 protected monuments along the curve of the Garonne.
The Miroir d'Eau is the world's largest reflecting pool. The 3,450-square-metre sheet of water in front of the Place de la Bourse opened in 2006 and switches to mist every fifteen minutes.
The Bordeaux wine region covers about 110,000 hectares. It is the largest fine-wine appellation area in the world, and almost all of it is outside the city, in the Médoc, Saint-Émilion and the Graves.
The Bassins des Lumières occupies a Second World War submarine base. The Germans built the concrete pens in 1941; the digital art centre inside them is the largest of its kind.
The city tram runs on ground-level power through the centre. The system was built without overhead wires specifically so that cables would not cross the listed eighteenth-century views.
The UNESCO core is walkable end to end in about forty minutes. The city is compact and flat, and the tram does the rest, which is why two nights covers Bordeaux and the third belongs to the vineyards.
Local tips for Bordeaux
Walk it, tram for the docks
The city is flat and compact enough to walk end to end, with the tram for the docks and the right bank. The BatCub river shuttle to La Bastide runs on an ordinary ticket.
TBM ticket, 20% off the Cité
A valid TBM transport ticket takes 20% off the Cité du Vin, which is the one combination worth planning. Go on the tram and keep the ticket.
Saint-Émilion's station is low
The station sits about two kilometres below the village and the walk up is steep. Most people take a tour or drive; the train from Bordeaux is about €10 and forty minutes.
The Médoc needs a car or a tour
The châteaux are not reachable by public transport in any practical way. The drink-drive limit is 0.5 grams per litre, so a tour or a driver is the standard answer for a tasting day.
How long to stay
Most people give Bordeaux 2 nights on Stippl: a city day with the Cité du Vin and a vineyard day. A third day is Arcachon and the Dune du Pilat.
Theft, not much else
Bordeaux is a low-risk city and the risk it has is pickpocketing: Place de la Bourse, the Capucins market, Gare Saint-Jean and the tram. The station streets are the only night-time caution.
Bordeaux questions, answered
Earlier than the rest of France. 29.3% of the trips that include Bordeaux are built six months or more ahead on Stippl, the highest share in the country, because the chateau visits and the good tables go first. Put the dates into Stippl, then book the vineyard day before you book anything else.
Two, or three if a vineyard day is the point. Most people give Bordeaux 2 nights in the plans they build on Stippl. The city itself is walkable in a day, so the second night is what buys you Saint-Emilion or the Medoc without rushing the return train.
Mostly they stay, but not long. 39.21% of Bordeaux stops planned on Stippl are a single night, which is a city being treated as a stage on the way south rather than a destination. The second night is what turns it back into one, and it costs you nothing but a hotel.
No, and it catches people out. Saint-Emilion, the Medoc and Pessac-Leognan all sit forty minutes to an hour outside the city, so the wine is a day out rather than an afternoon. Saint-Emilion is the easy one by train; the Medoc needs a car, a driver or a booked tour.
A regional train, about forty minutes, several a day. The catch nobody mentions is that the station sits two kilometres below the village and the walk up is steep in the sun, so plan for a taxi at the top or a shuttle. Last trains back are early, so check them before you order the second bottle.
It is a museum about wine culture rather than a tasting room, so go for the story and not the glass. The ticket includes one pour on the panoramic top floor, which is the best view in Bordeaux. If your two days already have a vineyard in them, this is the thing to drop.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Bordeaux in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
Download the app