Bordeaux
France
An eighteenth-century city of pale stone, with the world’s most famous vineyards half an hour out
Photo by Juan Di Nella on Unsplash
Photos by Guillaume Flandre, Pierre Blaché, Jennifer Yung and Vince Gx on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of France
May to June, and September to October (harvest is late September and the best time to be here)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 105mm in Nov
Where it is
44.84°N, 0.58°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Stand in the water mirror at dusk when it fogs
- Take the train to Saint-Émilion and walk the vineyards between tastings
- Climb the Dune du Pilat and come down the fast way
- Eat oysters at Arcachon with a glass of Entre-deux-Mers
- Walk the Chartrons on a Sunday for the quay market
Bordeaux travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget France
Mid-rangeEuro country and cards are universal, contactless included. Small châteaux on a tasting visit occasionally prefer cash for bottles bought at the door.
ATMs & cards
Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas and Société Générale machines are free on their side for most foreign cards. Refuse the conversion. Avoid the standalone machines around Place de la Victoire, which charge.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- the standalone machines around Place de la Victoire
Use these instead
- Crédit Agricole
- BNP Paribas
- Société Générale
French bank machines are normally free on their side for foreign cards. Refuse the conversion offer.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of France
Reasonably safeComfortable and busy by day, with a big student population. Pickpocketing and phone-snatching cluster around Saint-Jean station, Saint-Michel and Place de la Victoire late at night, and bikes go missing from anywhere unwatched. The riverside is well lit and used at all hours; Chartrons and Saint-Pierre are fine into the evening. Cycling here is easy but the tram tracks catch narrow tyres — cross them square.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- around Saint-Jean station and Saint-Michel late at night — pickpocketing and phone-snatching, and a rougher feel than the centre
- Place de la Victoire after the bars close — student drinking, and the theft that works a drunk crowd
- a bike left unwatched — they go, locked or not, anywhere outside a garage
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa France visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of France
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
OutstandingCanelés, small, dark and rum-scented, from Baillardran or better from a small pâtisserie. Entrecôte grilled over vine cuttings, oysters from Arcachon with a small hot sausage beside them, and lamprey cooked in red wine if you are feeling brave.
Getting around
Easy- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- G7Works here
- FREE NOWWorks here
G7 the taxi fleet, by app
- Against a taxi
- Much the same. The flat airport rate is a taxi rule and the apps price against it.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Paris — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of France
Why these are France's numbers and not Bordeaux's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2.6× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.2× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Bordeaux, so these are medians for all of France. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for France, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
French
- HelloBonjourbon-ZHOOR
- PleaseS'il vous plaîtseel voo PLEH
- Thank youMercimer-SEE
- Yes / NoOui / Nonwee / non
4 more phrases
- Excuse meExcusez-moiex-koo-zay MWA
- How much is it?C'est combien ?say com-BYEN
- The bill, pleaseL'addition, s'il vous plaîtla-dee-SYON
- Cheers!Santé !son-TAY
Open with bonjour before anything else. Launching straight into a question without it reads as rude, and explains a lot of reputed French coldness.
Religion
Catholic, and strictly secular
Laïcité is a constitutional principle: religion is kept out of public institutions, and conspicuous religious symbols are banned in state schools. Cover shoulders in cathedrals.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Say bonjour before anything else, every single time you enter a shop
- Keep your voice down in restaurants and on public transport
- Keep both hands visible on the table while eating, wrists on the edge
- Dress a notch smarter than you would at home — it changes how you are treated
Don't
- Do not ask for a doggy bag or substitutions; the dish arrives as the kitchen intends
- Do not start with English without at least attempting bonjour, parlez-vous anglais
- Do not tip more than rounding up — service is included by law
- Do not eat while walking; it reads as slightly uncivilised
Where to stay in Bordeaux
No Holistay rentals in Bordeaux yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Bordeaux on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Mérignac BOD
30 minfrom the airport· 11 km as the crow flies
30 min on the 30' Direct bus.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
