We enjoyed a private shore excursion of Bordeaux and Saint Emilion, two of the prettiest towns in the area, after we arrived at the Bordeaux port. We explored the historic city of Bordeaux with our private guide, Karim, who was excellent. Following this we made a trip to the charming town of Saint Emilion. Both towns are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Then we stopped at a chateau for a wine tasting of some of the regions famous vintages. Group size was only the three in our party. We booked this tour through Viator.

Our party of 12 signed up for 2 vans for this tour. Our friends in the other van were very happy with their guide. Unfortunately our guide had not much information to share with us. When we asked her if we could visit the underground monuments she replied that we should have booked that in advance and it was not possible to take us there anymore. Later on we found out that our friends in the other van were accommodated by their guide and got to enter the site. We were also led by our guide to walk a steep, slippery cobbled path to the road below where she took us to a wine store for wine-tasting. She left us there and went to pick up her car which she parked around the corner from the shop. Why she made us negotiate the steep incline (4 of us were seniors) instead of dropping us off from the start is beyond my comprehension. She told us to take as long as we needed at the wine store, after which she said it was time to drive us back to the ship. It seemed she was only interested in taking us to buy wine (probably had commission) instead of showing us the place and sharing information as tour guides are paid to do. We got back to our cruise ship about an hour earlier than our friends in the other van, whose guide took her time to show them the sights. Needless to say, all 6 of us were terribly disappointed with this tour.

We were very pleased with our guide. She was excellent