Guided tours from Sarlat into the valley

What a guide adds in this valley

The Dordogne was the frontier between the French crown’s lands and English Guyenne, and the valley reads completely differently once someone says so on the spot: Castelnaud held for the English, Beynac for the French, and English Wikipedia describes Castelnaud as built as a rival stronghold to Beynac across the waterway. A guide also solves the practical half of the day. Castelnaud-la-Chapelle is about 9 km from Sarlat-la-Canéda, the nearest car park to the gate is the paid municipal one above the castle, and outside July and August no scheduled bus runs between the two towns at all. A van that leaves Place Pasteur removes all of that. Every route in, with and without a car.

The half-day tour, hour by hour

Four hours, around a hundred and ten euros, rated 4.6 from more than 160 ratings. Twenty minutes in the van from Place Pasteur to Beynac, then a 45-minute guided walk through the village under the cliff. Ten minutes on to La Roque-Gageac and an hour on a gabarre, the flat-bottomed boat this river traded in, with the castles read off the water. Ten minutes more to Domme and a hundred minutes there with the guide, then back to Sarlat. The guide works in English; the commentary on the boat is in French. Minimum two adults, and if the water is low the boat leg becomes a castle visit instead.

This one does not visit Castelnaud

Worth being clear about before booking, because the name of this site makes it the obvious assumption. The stops are Beynac village, La Roque-Gageac and Domme; Castelnaud is one of the castles you see from the gabarre, not one you walk into, and the listing’s own exclusions say entrance fees beyond the programme are not covered. If the fortress and its museum are the point of your day, that is a separate hour bought from the castle, and it fits either side of this four-hour block. The tariff and what the visit covers.

Gudmundur, from Norway, put the afternoon down to what the guide knew; Nicola, from the United Kingdom, booked at the last minute and was glad of it; Martin, from Germany, singled out Anne, the guide, as the best you could imagine. The honest notes run the other way: Elisabeth, from Australia, wanted more than fifteen minutes at Domme, and Jacqueline, from the United States, had headphones on the boat that did not work. The listing read in full.

The private tour, and the winter window

around a hundred and sixty-three euros, rated 5.0 from 33 ratings, a small base. Three and a half to four hours in an air-conditioned vehicle that is yours alone, with pickup in Sarlat, Les Eyzies or Saint-Cyprien, bottled water, all fees and taxes, and admission included at the rates the listing quotes. The route is a viewpoint stop, a traditional village, half an hour at Domme, half an hour at La Roque-Gageac, the valley’s castles from below, and then a guided hour inside a castle. What a private tour actually buys shows up in its reviews: one guide, David, is named again and again — Michael, from Canada, on how well he knew the historical sites, Peter, from Australia, on the range of places and the local knowledge.

The guided castle hour is at Beynac for most of the year. From January to mid-February, when Beynac is closed, the operator substitutes Castelnaud. That is the operator’s own note rather than a line in the inclusion list, so this site carries it as a note and never as a guarantee — but it is the only place in this catalogue where anyone is taken inside Castelnaud with a guide, and it is worth confirming with the operator when you book a winter date. The private tour read in full.

Half day or private

Comparing all six listings, including the canoe routes and the balloon, is done on the tours page.

Half day

From Sarlat: Beynac & Domme Tour & Dordogne Boat Ride

★ 4.6 · 160+ ratings

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Private guide

Sarlat: Private Tour to the Dordogne Valley

★ 5.0 · 33 ratings

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Frequently asked questions