*POST UPDATED OCTOBER 2026.
Hi friends! How the heck are you? I hope this post finds you well – ideally, enjoying a mid-morning break with a cup of coffee at arm’s reach. I’m here today to share my Bordeaux travel guide with you and wow, nothing makes me happier than travelling and sharing my experiences. If you’d told me two years ago – knee-deep in lockdown restrictions and the first year in 13 that I wasn’t on an airplane! – that I’d soon be scrambling to keep up with new travel guides, I never would’ve believed you. Just last month I finished sharing my Amalfi Coast guides, now I’m here with this, and next month I’ll be back with a quick Saint-Émilion guide. It feels so good to be back at it! Now, let’s get down to it, shall we? I bring you: Eating Our Way Around Bordeaux, France.
Until I started writing this guide, I didn’t realize just how much information I had to share – this turned into an epic! There is heaps of information below: where to stay / where to grab coffee / where to eat + drink / and what to see & do! Enjoy!
PS: get ready for a photo overload! Bordeaux was just so pretty, it was hard not to snap snap snap!
before you visit
Before we get down to my Bordeaux travel guide, there are a few things to keep in mind:
when we visited, France didn’t have any Covid-19 travel restrictions in place, but you needed a valid Covid pass to get everywhere. Obviously flights, but also cafes, bars, restaurants, and even the outdoor Christmas market. The Irish Covid-cert is entirely interchangeable with the French ‘health pass’, so no need to worry about converting it online. Other than that, social distancing was the norm, and masks were mandatory indoors, etc. — but be sure to checkFrance’s latest regulationsif you’re thinking about visiting.*2025 UPDATE: this info is largely irrelevant now, but I’m leaving it here for posterity.
the only hurdle we faced was having to get an antigen test before our flight back to Dublin. We pre-booked our tests online,in a pharmacy5-minutes away from our hotel. From what I’ve read online, it seems you don’t have to have an appointment, but I didn’t want to risk it — and I’m glad we didn’t, because it felt like everybody in Bordeaux was in the queue to get tested with us. Aside from the 45-minute wait in the pouring rain, the test itself was over in less than 30-seconds, and we got our results by email about 20-minutes later. The requirement to have a negative test before entering Ireland has since been lifted, but be sure to checkthe latest travel regulationsbefore traveling.
*2025 UPDATE: this info is largely irrelevant now, but I’m leaving it here for posterity.on the pouring rain note: it rained every single day during our visit. After a quick Google search, I learned that this is pretty common — apparently it rains on average about 162 days of the year there! A coat with a hood and an umbrella are definitely packing essentials.
despite the rain, it was actually quite warm, even though we visited in December. This somehow makes the rain a whole lot easier to take. Besides, warm-ish weather + regular rainfall = perfect wine making conditions. Just sayin’!
getting there
Bordeaux is well connected by both air and train; the airport is one of the busiest in France and most European cities are only a connecting train away. Here are the steps we took to get to there:
we flew direct from Dublin to Bordeaux with Ryanair, which took around 1-hour and 50-minutes.
to get into the city, we took the 30’Direct shuttle bus from outside the airport terminal to Gare Saint Jean. We bought our tickets on the bus for €8, but there’s a small discount available if you book online. Note: our flight landed in Bordeaux at rush hour, and as a result the bus took over an hour to get into the city, despite the website stating travel time is 30-minutes. Something to keep in mind! I believe there are also public bus options; more info on that here.
it was (of course) raining when we arrived at Gare Saint Jean, so we hopped on a tram to Place de la Bourse. Tram tickets can be bought at machines around the lines, and a ticket for one journey is €1.70. You have to validate it when you get onto the tram, and you can use it for multiple journeys within a 1-hour time period. The trams are a brilliant way to get around, and they’re so frequent! We never had to wait for more than 4-minutes. Note: there’s no ticket machine at Place de la Bourse, so if you’re looking to get on there, either plan ahead or take a tram 1-stop, get off to buy a ticket, and catch the next tram. We did the latter, but we were assured by a Bordelais lady that it would be okay.
where we stayed
What good would a Bordeaux travel guide be without a hotel recommendation? Well, I have two! Both are budget friendly — more to spend on food/wine — and both are ideally located near places we knew we’d be going to, which is so important for us. Pro tip: if you plan your trips around restaurants/places you know you’ll be, then look at those locations on Google maps and see if there are hotels nearby. Honestly, this is how we find most of the places we stay!