Toulouse : Excursion d'une journée à Albi et Cordes/Ciel avec audioguides

This is a bus trip that takes you to each location and then you have free time, not a guided tour. Everything went smoothly on my trip, the coach pick up was easy to find, just next to the Armenian Genocide memorial. The pickup was well organised and the driver was excellent, giving departure times and locations in English and French. The countryside was very pretty, rolling hills and fields of sunflowers. The AC on the bus was most welcome but leg room was limited, especially when the people in front recline their seats! Albi was just awesome. The cathedral was magnificent, probably the most awe inspiring I have seen in Western Europe other than the Norman cathedral near Palermo. The city itself was pleasant to walk around and the drop off was easy to get to and return to, a few minutes from the cathedral. Cordes sur Ciel is a fantastic medieval hilltop town with original gateways and streets. It really is one of those places that seems unchanged for hundreds of years. The climb up is quite steep but there are plenty of cafes and gelato shops to stop in. Overall, a bargain trip and two wonderful places to visit.

This is a bus trip that takes you to each location and then you have free time, not a guided tour. Everything went smoothly on my trip, the coach pick up was easy to find, just next to the Armenian Genocide memorial. The pickup was well organised and the driver was excellent, giving departure times and locations in English and French. The countryside was very pretty, rolling hills and fields of sunflowers. The AC on the bus was most welcome but leg room was limited, especially when the people in front recline their seats! Albi was just awesome. The cathedral was magnificent, probably the most awe inspiring I have seen in Western Europe other than the Norman cathedral near Palermo. The city itself was pleasant to walk around and the drop off was easy to get to and return to, a few minutes from the cathedral. Cordes sur Ciel is a fantastic medieval hilltop town with original gateways and streets. It really is one of those places that seems unchanged for hundreds of years. The climb up is quite steep but there are plenty of cafes and gelato shops to stop in. Overall, a bargain trip and two wonderful places to visit.

The service consists only of transportation. That is clear and is very good. The bus is in excellent condition, the driver is very kind and maintains punctuality as appropriate. The audio guide is a 0/5. It has a bad interface. You cannot listen to the audio while using the map. If you choose a language (I chose Spanish) many points were in Italian, German, or English. It is a useless audio guide. You definitely have to change the method. The time calculated in both Albi and Cordes is extremely exaggerated. Albi is a place to tour for 2 or 3 hours maximum, not 4. And for Cordes, 1 hour and a half would be more than enough. In both cases, there were always many people at the bus stop waiting for 1 hour sitting just to leave. Both Albi and Cordes are undoubtedly worth visiting and the price of the tour is very reasonable. Without a doubt, by changing the audio guide and reducing the times in each town, the experience would be 5/5.

It’s good transportation nothing more. The audio guide isn’t great. We chose English but it kept going to different languages.

This is a great way to visit two locations of interest at a modest cost. I liked being dropped off in each place and having several hours to tour at one’s own pace. We had plenty of time for the Toulouse-Lautrec museum, a leisurely lunch and a wander around the historic part of Albi, and plenty of time for the sightseeing in Cordes. Thos trip is a happy medium between a more expensive fully guided tour and going it alone in a rental car.

This is transportation only but we had a good experience. We found the starting point easily, had a comfortable bus trip with quality air conditioning, and had plenty of time in the locations. My one complaint is that we were not given access to the app prior to the bus so the download had to be done while roaming. The app itself downloaded quickly but the audio and guide never downloaded at all. I gave up on it because it was killing my phone battery. (Bring a charging cord for the bus!)

This is essentially a convenient bus service that will take you to Albi for about 4 hours and then to Courdes sur Ciel for about 2 hours. The bus we were on was an older long distance bus labeled with the BlaBla bus brand. This is a great alternative to taking a train since it brings you to two towns, both of which are wonderful and interesting. Also the trains were on strike on the dates we wanted to travel. You are on your own as far as what to do after arrival though they do provide a link to a guide app which provides an itinerary and information about the sites.

As others have mentioned the tour is simply transportation between the stops making it convenient and efficient to visit. The bus driver was excellent! The only criticism is that the tour operator should advise the download link to the audio guide in the description *before* arrival to the bus. Most travelers have roaming plans while on vacation making the download on the bus slow and potentially expensive.

We managed to find the pick up spot despite the address not matching the place where the coach was. You have to check the location and put it into your map app which isn’t the address advertised. The ‘tour’ is basically self guided and you’re paying for coach transportation. Albi is well worth a visit as the Cathedral of St Cecile is definitely worthy of its UNESCO recognitio. Lots of medieval buildings to check out too. Cordes sur Ciel is a village on top of a very steep hill. The little train wasn’t running when we arrived and so we walked up the very very steep hill - you definitely need determination but again worth it as there’s enough time to see everything. You’re basically paying for the transportation so its a good deal compared to the cost of other tours with guides.

The bus did not have air conditioning, and the temperature reached 28 degrees Celsius; it felt very stuffy, the driver did not speak English, only French, and communication was very difficult. In my opinion, if a reservation is made, there should be communication, whether in English or Spanish, or the language in which the reservation is made.