The Dordogne without a car

Why it works without a car

On a self-guided holiday the route itself is your transport. Each day you walk or ride from one hotel to the next, following our detailed route notes and GPX files, while your bag goes ahead and is waiting when you arrive. Dinner is included on most nights, so there’s no driving out in the evening either.

The routes are planned to reach the places worth seeing on foot or by bike: the castles of Beynac and Castelnaud, the caves of the Vézère valley around Les Eyzies, the hilltop bastide of Domme, Rocamadour on its cliff and the Gouffre de Padirac on the causse. On Premium Périgord, the walk from Le Port de Domme into Sarlat finishes on the car-free Voie Verte greenway, laid along an old railway line.

Dordogne Experience is a family business, owned and run by Cassie, creating walking and cycling holidays in the Dordogne for over 40 years.

Getting to the start by train

Each holiday starts close to a railway station:

• Sarlat for Premium Périgord, and the finish of Castles & Caves of the Dordogne. Sarlat’s station is on the line from Bordeaux via Bergerac.
• Les Eyzies for Castles & Caves of the Dordogne, with a station in the village on the regional line between Périgueux and Agen. From Bordeaux, you change at Le Buisson.
• Souillac for Exploring Rocamadour and Cycling in the Dordogne, on the main line from Paris Austerlitz to Toulouse. On some nights of the week the overnight Intercités de Nuit from Paris stops here too.
• Brive-la-Gaillarde for France’s Most Beautiful Villages, on the same main line and with regional trains from Bordeaux via Périgueux, about half an hour by taxi from Sarrazac.
• Valence TGV for Ardèche Adventure, under an hour by taxi from Lamastre.

Book on SNCF Connect, about three months ahead for good fares; seats on Intercités and TGV trains need a reservation. If you travel from London by Eurostar, the EU’s new Entry/Exit System checks (fingerprints and a photo on your first trip) happen at St Pancras before you leave, so GOV.UK advises allowing extra time. Routes from London, North America, Australia and New Zealand, with journey times, are on our getting there page.

Taxis: your hotel books them

We don’t arrange taxis ourselves. If you need one, ask your hotel and they’ll book a local taxi for you; you pay the fare locally. Your first and last hotels are happy to book a taxi to or from the station or airport, and if you don’t feel up to a day’s walk or the weather turns, you can ask your hotel in the morning to book a taxi to your next hotel.

The one exception is Premium Périgord, where your arrival taxi from Sarlat to Hôtel Le Périgord at Le Port de Domme is included.

Rest days on foot

Free days are easy without a car, because they’re in towns and villages you can explore on foot:

• Sarlat (free day on Castles & Caves of the Dordogne and on Cycling in the Dordogne). The tourist office lists the traditional market on Wednesday mornings and all day on Saturday. The former Sainte-Marie church houses the covered market, and a glass panoramic lift in its bell tower rises 35 metres over the old town; check the tourist office for times.
• Les Eyzies (a full day there on Castles & Caves of the Dordogne). The Musée National de Préhistoire, whose collections cover more than 400,000 years of human presence, is in the village. Check its official site for opening times.
• Rocamadour (two nights on Exploring Rocamadour). Explore the sanctuaries, or follow the circular walk of 10.8 km (6.7 miles). To avoid the crowds, Occitanie’s tourist board suggests the morning before 10am or the late afternoon, especially in July and August, the busiest months.
• Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne (rest day on France’s Most Beautiful Villages), with its old town, pavement cafés by the river and an optional circular walk.

What you’d miss without a car, and why it doesn’t matter

Without a car you can’t make spontaneous detours to sights well away from your route, or drive out to a restaurant in another village for dinner. On the walking holidays, Lascaux IV at Montignac is one example: it isn’t on the routes, though Cycling in the Dordogne visits it on day 7.

For most guests this matters very little. The holidays are built around the sights you can reach under your own steam, dinner is included on most nights, and on foot you arrive in each village along its lanes and paths rather than in a car park. If there’s one extra place you’d love to see, a hotel-booked taxi can take you on a free day. For Lascaux, the local tourist office advises booking tickets online in advance. The Gouffre de Padirac, which you pass on foot on France’s Most Beautiful Villages and Exploring Rocamadour, is often fully booked in summer, so book that online too.

If you’d rather bring a car

You can, and our getting there page covers car hire. On France’s Most Beautiful Villages you can leave your car at your first hotel in Sarrazac free of charge, if you tell them in advance. You’ll still walk every day, and your luggage is still moved.

Which holidays go there

NewPremium · Walking

Premium Périgord

A Gourmet Journey

6 days · from £950 per person, sharing a double/twin room

Arrival taxi from Sarlat included

Walking

Castles & Caves of the Dordogne

8 days · from £995 per person, sharing a double/twin room

Starts at Les Eyzies station

Walking

France’s Most Beautiful Villages

8 days · from £965 per person, sharing a double/twin room

From Brive-la-Gaillarde

Walking

Exploring Rocamadour

8 days · from £975 per person, sharing a double/twin room

Starts at Souillac

Photo: Havang(nl) / CC0Walking

Ardèche Adventure

8 days · from £985 per person, sharing a double/twin room

From Valence TGV

Cycling

Cycling in the Dordogne

8 days · from £1,250 per person, sharing a double/twin room

Circular from Souillac