With Rick Steves, the Loire Valley is yours to discover! This slim guide excerpted from Rick Steves France includes:

• Rick's firsthand, up-to-date advice on the Loire Valley's best sights, restaurants, hotels, and more, plus tips to beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps
• Top sights and local experiences: Visit grandiose châteaus, such as Chenonceau, Blois, and Château d'Azay-le-Rideau. Tour the Leonardo da Vinci park, go wine-tasting in Vouvray, and wander the gardens of Villandry. Soak up stunning views from a hot air balloon tour, or take a bike ride through the rolling countryside
• Helpful maps and self-guided walking tours to keep you on track

Since 1973, Rick Steves has spent about four months a year exploring Europe. His mission: to empower Americans to have European trips that are fun, affordable, and culturally broadening. Rick produces a best-selling guidebook series, a public television series, and a public radio show, and organizes small-group tours that take over 30,000 travelers to Europe annually. He does all of this with the help of more than 100 well-traveled staff members at Rick Steves' Europe in Edmonds, WA (near Seattle). When not on the road, Rick is active in his church and with advocacy groups focused on economic and social justice, drug policy reform, and ending hunger. To recharge, Rick plays piano, relaxes at his family cabin in the Cascade Mountains, and spends time with his son Andy, daughter Jackie, and his new grandson...baby Atlas. Find out more about Rick at www.ricksteves.com and on Facebook.

Connect with Rick:
facebook.com/RickSteves
twitter: @RickSteves
instagram: ricksteveseurope

Steve Smith has had one foot in France and one in the United States for 55 years. He drives a Deux Chevaux car and has restored a farmhouse on the Burgundy canal where he hangs his beret in the spring and summer. Steve managed tour guides for Rick Steves’ Europe for more than two decades but now spends his time researching guidebooks, teaching about France, and exploring every corner of his favorite country. When not in France, Steve loves finding dirt grown backstreets in his VW camper van.