How to travel to Bordeaux on a budget

Nicola recently finished writing the new edition of Lonely Planet's Pocket Bordeaux guidebook, which is out in May 2024. Here she shares her expert opinion on how to explore the city on a budget.

As French cities go in the budget-travel stakes, Bordeaux measures up admirably. With a prestigious university at its helm since 1441, France’s sixth-largest city is one of the country’s most dynamic, cultured and brazenly creative. Those 50,000-odd modern-day students, invariably living on a shoestring like centuries of alumni before them, need to be fed, watered and entertained after all.

New-school designer hostels and studio accommodation catering to short or longer stays have mushroomed in Bordeaux in recent years. From heritage "don’t-waste-a-crumb" sanguettes (blood pancakes) devoured at street markets to sophisticated seafood gastronomy fresh from the nearby sea, dining out caters to every wallet; it is also notably cheaper than Paris or seasonal tourist hot spots like Provence and the Côte d’Azur. Some of the world’s priciest wines might be Bordeaux’s lifeblood, but choose vintage and venue wisely, and even the city’s eponymous vin can be drunk for a song. Here’s how to eat, drink and merrymake with Bordelais sass and cent-smart student panache.

Daily Costs

• Hostel dorm bed: €25

• Basic double room: €60–80

• Self-catering studio for two (including Airbnb): from €60

• Tram or metro ticket: €1.80

• Bike rental: €2.70 per hour; €12–16 per day

• Un café (espresso): €1.70

• A still-warm baguette from a bakery: €1

• Chocolatine: €1.40

• A dozen oysters: €32

• Glass of red wine: from €6

• Two-course bistro lunch: €18

• Brunch: from €10.50

• Pint of beer at Happy Hour: €4

• Average daily cost: €80–150

Take advantage of good-value lunchtime menus

In true French fashion, Bordeaux’s smorgasbord of enticing bistros, brasseries and restaurants cook up multicourse menus at a fixed price. Given the need for relative speed at lunchtime (this is France, after all), the formule (set two- or three-course meal) and plat du jour (dish of the day) chalked on the board at noon invariably offer exceptional value and can be a real steal. Casa Gaïa and Les Récoltants, both with two-/three-course lunch deals costing around €18/23, are favorite addresses to snag a lunch table at.

Taste wine with wine growers at the Fête du Vin

Each year, Bordeaux celebrates its army of talented wine growers and makers for four days in June during its headline Fête du Vin. Costing a bargain €23 (€16 if purchased online prior to December), the Pass Dégustation or Tasting Pass is a golden ticket to sampling 11 glasses of different reds and whites. Wine tasting doesn’t get cheaper than this.

Shop for street food and picnics at the market

Even in winter, Bordeaux’s milder climate and natural love of bluebird days render an alfresco picnic a true pleasure – be it in the peaceful Jardin Public or watching boats sail by from steps or manicured lawn facing the swirling Garonne. Buy picnic ingredients in the morning at covered market Marché des Capucins, the organic farm shop at Les Récoltants or the fresh produce market that fills riverside quai des Chartrons on Sunday morning. The latter is also a five-star op to grab freshly shucked oysters from nearby Arcachon, shellfish platters, steaming bowls of spicy tajines and other top-notch street-food nosh at a food truck or stall.

Ditch crowds and elevated prices – visit in low season

Accommodation is likely to be one of your biggest expenses. Cut costs and plan your visit for low season – October to March – when hotel rates tumble. The lack of crowds in museums at this time, the relative ease with which tables at the best restaurants can be snagged and the greater willingness locals have to chat all contribute to a greater sense of enjoying more bang for your buck.

Save cents sightseeing with a Bordeaux CityPass

Cut sightseeing costs with the Bordeaux CityPass (24/48/72 hours €34/44/50), covering admission to 15 museums and monuments, including big-hitters La Cité du Vin and Bassins des Lumières. It also includes a free guided tour and unlimited use of public buses, trams and riverboats. Buy it online or in situ at Bordeaux tourist office.

Trade in a river cruise for a BAT3 boat ride

Organized river cruises, wildly popular in summer, will set you back anything from €15 a shot for a one-hour sightseeing cruise with commentary to €29 with a wine-tasting float or €65 with dinner aboard. Slash costs dramatically by exploring the river with BAT3 shuttle boats run by public transport company TBM. Use a regular tram/bus ticket or buy a pricier €3/4 ticket valid for one/two journeys aboard.

Follow the crowd – on wheels

Deep-dive into local life by renting a bicycle and joining the Bordelais crowd in the city’s numerous cycling lanes and along the Garonne’s car-free quays. TBM’s public bike-sharing scheme V3 is cheap (€1.70 to register, 30 mins free, then €2 per hour), easy to use and the most eco-efficient means of exploring the city.

Those keen to venture further afield can pick up mapped bike routes along scenic voies vertes (greenways) through vineyards to medieval wine town St-Émilion (50km/31 miles), through pine forest to surfing hub Lacanau (67km/41 miles) on the south along the Atlantic Coast, or along the Garonne Canal to Toulouse (270km/165 miles).

Best free things to do in Bordeaux

Enjoy a free run of city museums on the first Sunday of the month

With the exception of July and August, city museums offer free admission on the first Sunday of each month. This means you can lose yourself in urban history at Musée d’Aquitaine, get to know 19th-century Bordeaux’s most shocking female painter at Musée des Beaux-Arts and enjoy contemporary art in an 1820s coffee warehouse at CAPC without spending a penny. Top-drawer natural history museum Muséum Bordeaux – Sciences et Nature also offers free entrance on this day.

Complete the freebie bundle with a free audio or digital tour offered by the Musée d’Aquitaine and other museums on their smartphone app – check individual websites and download apps as part of your pre-trip planning.

Hook up with a local on a city walking tour

Such is the indecent abundance of majestic architecture, arresting monuments and engaging street-life scenes in Bordeaux’s most historic quartiers – St Pierre, St-Paul and Chartrons – and along its riverside quays that ambling around these neighborhoods is entertainment in itself. Bring your own water bottle to save quenching thirst in pricey cafes; public drinking-water fountains to refill speck squares around town, including place St-Projet, place des Martyrs et de la Résistance and by the skate park on quai des Chartrons.

Go one step further and create your own DIY-themed tour, perhaps around the city’s unsettling role in the historical trade of enslaved people, or a tasting tour of chocolatines (Bordeaux’s version of a chocolate-filled pain au chocolat pastry) around the city’s neighborhood boulangeries (bakeries). Or hook up with Free Walking Tours Bordeaux for a free, two-hour guided stroll around the main sights; book in advance online.

Dance your socks off in the Miroir d’Eau

It’s the coolest way to keep cool in the city on a scorching summer day, and is completely free to boot. Ditch the socks and shoes and frolic with the best of them in Bordeaux’s iconic water pool. Covering an area of 3450 sq meters of black granite on the quayside opposite the imposing Palais de la Bourse and its harem of elegant palaces, the Miroir d’Eau is reckoned to be the world’s largest reflecting pool.

Unearth seasonal flora and practice yoga in botanical gardens and parks

Learn about the city through a green lens in the historic Jardin Public, the main city park established in 1755 and landscaped English-style a century later. Its meticulously cataloged botanical garden shines fascinating light on indigenous flora, exotic species and tropical botanical curiosities. Catch outdoor puppet shows in the park on summer weekends, free gardening workshops (Wednesdays and Saturdays, September to June) at the Maison du Jardinier et de la Nature, and free Saturday-morning yoga sessions year-round.

Track down murals by Bordeaux’s hippest street artists

Tune into the city’s sensational portfolio of contemporary urban art on the backstreets of left-bank Chartrons and right-bank La Bastide, around former military-barracks-turned-lifestyle-campus Darwin. Complement the DIY street-art tour with backstage encounters with local artists in studios and independent art galleries on rue Notre Dame and surrounding streets.

Just a couple of blocks from La Cité du Vin in crane- and silo-spangled Bacalan, Bordeaux’s fierce eco-warrior soul gets creative at artsy Le Garage Moderne and Les Vivres de l’Art. Watch for free concerts, film screenings, green festivals, crafts markets et al at both community-driven venues. Occasional contemporary art exhibitions also unfold at FRAC.

Join a run

Kill several birds with one stone. Don your trainers and join a free group run organized by A2 Running to explore the city from a different perspective, meet local runners and have a swizz at brushing up your French while scampering around town. Runs (40 minutes) depart in front of the Miroir d’Eau every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30pm; several groups cater to different speeds, including complete beginners.