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

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.

In Albi the guide recommended that you visit the cathedral and then museum . We did that and were very disappointed that it closed down for lunch so we paid €10 for a 25 minute visit and what really wanted to see that museum !!

The places were beautiful, worth visiting. Unfortunately, the bus had mechanical issues and we lost about 1 hour getting to Albi, and another hour getting to Cordes, which is a lot for one day visit. This issue prevented us from visiting museums which close around noon and open at 2pm, our departure time to Cordes. Cordes is besutiful! The people were very nice, just bad luck they didn’t have backup buses. Even with the bus stalling, it was a great day. The audioguide app works sporadically, learn about the attractions before getting there if you can.

Had a problem.with the first bus it broke down and they couldn't get it started. So ended up having delays and having to go on several buses. We liked Albi but thought Cordes over rated could have been there 30 mins and seen everything.