Bordeaux Transportation

I found that renting a bicycle from a local shop in Bordeaux a most excellent way to explore Bordeaux. While the tram and bus system is convenient, having a bike enabled me to easily go from one place to the next. Plus Bordeaux has many bike lanes that cover most of the main routes in the city. The bike was relatively tame, medium tires, a rack on the back, lights front and back.....a little more metro than I am used to, but it worked fine for four days and even made the trip to St. Emilion. On rue Dr. Nancel Penard near Place Gambetta.

Bordeaux has an excellent public transportation system that is easily used in town, but also connects to the suburban areas and convention center on the outskirts of town. For the trams, tickets on a trip by trip basis can be bought at the tram stops. In July 2011 it was 1.40E per trip. The machines did not appear to take paper money, but did take cash cards.

VCUB is the city's "bike for rent" system. I have never been to a city with so many cyclists using rented bikes. It is very cheap, very easily accessible and very practical, particularly as the tramways are often very crowded.

How does VCUB work? Depending on how long you stay in Bordeaux or how long you want to use the system, you can either go for a short term usage of 24 hours or 1 week or a long term usage of 1 month or 1 year. You go to the next VCUB terminal (they are literally everywhere, see this map for details), register with your debit card, pay (e.g. 5 euros for 7 days), receive a code which you !!MUST!! bear in mind and create your own 4-digit security number. You then take the bike and are free to go wherever you want. Once you're done, you simply leave it at the next VCUB terminal. The best: If you use it for less than 30 minutes, your trip won't cost you anything apart from the 5 euros!

One last thing: Be careful when you're using roads with tramway tracks. These have exactly the same width as your tyres and can cause some dangerous accidents.

The website below only exists in French, but perhaps the tourist information can help you with an English instruction manual.

The city has a good connections of the public transportation (bus and tram, the company is TBC, www.infotbc.com). The single ticket is EUR 1.40 for 1 hour journey. The one day ticket is EUR 4.10 and the week ticket is EUR 10.80. Don't forget to punch your new ticket! :-)

Bordeaux has the airport which is situated in the north-west of the city (the airport could be got by shuttle bus from railway station, here is the timetable http://www.bordeaux.aeroport.fr/en/info/jetbus-bordeaux-airport-shuttle-service).
The airport has 2 terminals: for usual airlines and for low-cost terminals (both are in 20 steps from each other). We used Ryanair to fly from Bordeaux: first, you must be registered, then you should give them your luggage and then boarding... (we had a flight to Charleroi and it was EUR 93 for 2 persons with 1 luggage place and 2 premium boarding to avoid the queue :-))

You don't have much time, but you would still like to do some sightseeing ? Bordeaux taxi drivers and tourist office offer an overview tour of the city.

# Meet and Greet Airport Service
# Hotel and Office Pickups
# Bordeaux Sights : Sightseeing in Bordeaux, Saint Emilion, Medoc or Arcachon can take all day. With our knowledge and information about the most famous sightseeing attractions, you can be sure to tour Bordeaux in unusual comfort
# Special Accommodations for Corporate Customers

We didn't use the bus service while exploring Bordeaux, but we did come across many buses lined up here near the Palais du Justice. Apparently this area is a depot for bus service in and around Bordeaux.

The sleek blue trams that operate in Bordeaux are a great way of getting around in the city centre or the suburbs. It's three-line tram is easily navigated and a good way of getting around Bordeaux.

The hours of operation are between 05:00 and 01:00 and tickets can be purchased at the tram stops.

We didn't use the tram during our visit and I am not quite sure what the ticket price would be.