Cruise Port Guide · 15 cruises visit Le Verdon →
The bucket-list things to do — and the private, expert-led way to do each.
Here’s the bucket list for your day ashore: the most extraordinary thing to do at each stop, and the private, small-group, or expert-led way to make it yours — your own pace, real access, none of the crowd.
Step into the storied vineyards of the Médoc — home to Pauillac, Saint-Julien, and Margaux — on a fully private, chauffeur-driven tour. Visit two or three classified châteaux, cellar-taste legendary vintages, and lunch in a vine-framed estate. Utterly bucket-list for any serious wine lover.
UNESCO-listed Bordeaux — the 'Port de la Lune' — unfolds on a private, chauffeured day trip from the pier. Stroll the Place de la Bourse, the golden Quais, and the covered Marché des Capucins, with ample free time to discover the city at your own pace. One of France's most beautiful cities, seen properly.
Cordouan — 'the Versailles of the Sea' — is France's oldest working lighthouse and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, rising from the open Gironde like a royal palace. Reach it by boat and, at low tide, walk the stone causeway for a hands-on encounter with one of the world's most remarkable maritime monuments. A truly once-in-a-lifetime sight.
Two of the Atlantic coast's best-kept secrets in one elegant half-day: Soulac-sur-Mer's grand Belle Époque villas and 12th-century pilgrim basilica, then the impossibly photogenic clifftop village of Talmont-sur-Gironde, its Romanesque church poised above the estuary. Close to port, deeply beautiful, and utterly unspoiled.
Pauillac is the heartland of Bordeaux's most celebrated First Growths — Lafite, Latour, Mouton Rothschild — all within 45 minutes of the pier. A private, curated half-day takes you inside a prestige estate for a cellar tour and a gastronomic château lunch paired with the estate's own classified wines. The definitive Médoc experience.
For the independent traveller who wants the freedom of UNESCO-listed Bordeaux without hiring a guide, a premium round-trip chauffeured transfer drops you riverside and collects you at an agreed hour — leaving you entirely free to explore, shop, dine, and discover at will. Effortless, flexible, and perfectly timed to your ship.
⚓ Your bucket-list concierge
Tell us your sailing and we'll send the bucket list for every port — the most extraordinary thing to do at each, and the private, expert-led way to make it yours.
No spam. The honest plan, even when it says skip the ship’s tour.