EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Arriving by train, you'll find yourself at the gare St-Jean , with its own small tourist office (May-Oct Mon-Sat 9am-noon & 1-6/7pm, Sun 10am-noon & 1-6pm; rest of year closed Sun; tel 05.56.91.64.70), right at the heart of a somewhat insalubrious area, nearly 3km south of the city centre; buses #7 or #8 run into the centre. Single-journey tickets are available on the buses (7.50F/¬1.14), but it's cheaper if you buy a carnet of ten from a tabac (52F/¬8.31). You must punch your ticket on the bus; carnet tickets are then valid for one hour, during which period you can change bus up to four times, re-punching the ticket each time. There's no central gare routière , but most regional bus services terminate at the parking lot on the north side of the esplanade des Quinconces; if the planned tramway goes ahead, however, the bus park may well be relocated. Bordeaux's main tourist office , 12 cours du 30-Juillet (May-Oct daily 9am-7/8pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 9.45am-4.30pm; tel 05.56.00.66.00, fax 05.56.00.66.01, www.bordeaux-tourisme.com ), can book accommodation free of charge; it also has useful information on the city and surrounding vineyards, to which it also arranges tours .