This October half term I stumbled across the most unlikely family-friendly region of France. For while the Dordogne may be well known for imposing châteaus, beautiful villages, fine food and farmers’ markets, we learned it’s bursting with fun and fascinating activities for kids too.
We spent 5 days on a road trip holiday exploring the history-rich Dordogne Valley, getting lost in mind-boggling mazes, taking boat trips along staggering subterranean rivers and having to tear our 6-year-old away from an exhibition that cleverly gamified learning about Palaeolithic cave paintings!
Not only did I love soaking up all the beautiful scenery, but our itinerary was full of surprising and enriching experiences, and we all came home having learned a new thing (or 3!).
If we’ve inspired you to book a family holiday to the Dordogne Valley, here are all the places we think your little ones will be amazed by, plus our top tips for planning your own family-friendly road trip.
This post has been written in collaboration with the Dordogne Valley tourism board. All opinions are my own.
How to get to the Dordogne Valley
One of the easiest ways to get to the Dordogne Valley from the UK is to fly direct from London Stansted to Brive Airport Dordogne Valley with RyanAir, which is what we did. The flight time is approx. 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Brive Airport is located only a few kms from many of the regions star attractions and is just 20 minutes from the charming town of Souillac, which is where we spent our first evening.
There is also a second regional airport, Aéroport Bergerac Dordogne Périgord, which is situated just 6km south of Bergerac and has direct flights from the UK with multiple airlines including RyanAir, Jet2, BA and Flybe.
If you’re planning a road trip like ours it works really well to book open-jaw flights into one of these airports and out of the other, so you can work your way across the Dordogne Valley without having to go back on yourself.
I highly recommend hiring a car to explore the region. We hired a hybrid from Europcar that took mere minutes to collect at Brive Airport.
If you’d rather drive your own vehicle then you can also take the Eurotunnel and drive to the Dordogne Valley via Paris. It will take roughly 5 hours of easy freeway-style driving from Paris to Souillac. Find more information here.
Where to stay in the Dordogne Valley with kids
In my next post I’ll share more details about all the cool places we stayed in the Dordogne Valley. But in a nutshell, we’d recommend:
Maison Borrèze – A stylish boutique hotel with chic family suites and a swimming pool in the heart of Souillac.
Cabanes Perchées Dans Les Arbres – Cool but cosy treehouses with hot tubs and meal delivery via rope and pulley!
La Roulotte at Domaine du Breuil – A boho caravan in a leafy garden close to culinary hotspot Brive.
Hotel Le Renoir – A charming traditional hotel in a former distillery in the heart of Medieval Sarlat.
Best things to do with kids in the Dordogne Valley
From Medieval castles to mind-boggling mazes, jaw-dropping caves & prehistoric villages – here’s our pick of the best things to do with kids in the Dordogne Valley.
Marqueyssac Gardens
The place I was most excited to visit on this trip was Marqueyssac Gardens and not only was it more beautiful than I imagined but there was so much to entertain our little one too.
Perched on chalky cliffs above the Dordogne Valley, The Gardens of Marqueyssac are famed for their panoramic views and incredible collection of 150,000 hand-trimmed boxwoods that are over 100-years-old.
There are more than 6 kms of winding paths to explore but what will keep the children engaged are the incredible children’s labyrinth, 2 playgrounds including a large netted path in the trees, and a 7.5-metre-tall dinosaur skeleton hiding in the Nature Pavilion.
For adventurous children aged 8 and older there is the “Via Ferrata des rapaces”, which is a 200-metre-long acrobatic cliff course dangling above the Dordogne Valley. There is no extra charge to participate but children must be accompanied by 2 adults – I was slightly relived Miles is only 6 to be honest!
Lascaux Cave
Somewhere that surprised me the most because of the way it so cleverly engages children is Lascaux IV, also known as the International Centre for Cave Art. This incredible modern architectural centre houses a complete replica of the world-famous Lascaux Cave that was discovered nearby by chance in 1940.
The original Lascaux cave, nicknamed the ‘Sistine Chapel of Prehistory’, has been closed to the public since 1963 to protect its 20,000 year old paintings from deterioration. There are a couple of replicas in the region but Lascaux IV, which opened in 2016, is a complete and modern reproduction of the entire cave complex, offering a more immersive experience with advanced technologies.
During your visit to Lascaux IV not only does the audio guide bring the unbelievably detailed paintings to life as you walk through the cave, but it also offers an interactive experience as you enter the exhibition spaces that follow afterwards.
In a specially created kids mode, children are encouraged to engage with the prehistoric art through a game whereby they have to capture images in order to collect tools and make their own paintings. It’s really clever and our son was hooked.
We also loved exploring The Gallery of the Imaginary and had a delicious lunch at Café Lascaux that offers hearty hot meals and a children’s menu.
We loved it here and I’d recommend spending at least 2-3 hours at the Lascaux IV in order to do it justice.
Gouffre de Padirac
The Gouffre de Padirac is a spectacular natural chasm and cave system that’s renowned as one of France’s greatest underground natural wonders.
Taking either stairs or an elevator you descend 103 metres into the abyss and then embark on a boat trip along a subterranean river through immense, stunning chambers.
We were lucky to experience the VIP tour and have our own English-speaking guide who bought the experience alive with tales of superstitions and early explorers and also took us on a private boat trip.
You can also do a self-guided tour with an audio guide if you’d rather move at your own pace.
I’d recommend allowing at least 2 hours for your visit and wearing warm layers and shoes with grip as it’s a bit chilly and slippery down there, as you might well imagine! Also bear in mind that although there is an elevator to get into and out of the chasm there are a lot of steps inside the cave so it’s not buggy-friendly.
If you’re hungry after all the adventure they have an incredible restaurant on site here, Auberge du Gouffre, where I highly recommend the local Rocamadour goat cheese salad.
Château de Castelnaud
If I had to choose one castle in the Dordogne Valley to visit with kids it would be Château de Castelnaud. It would be a tough decision in this region known as the ’Land of 1001 Castles’, but Castelnaud literally brings Medieval warfare to life and what child doesn’t get excited by that!
From their remarkable collection of weapons & armour to daily demonstrations of giant trebuchets – Castelnaud Castle is like a history lesson in real time. It also has a number of indoor exhibits so it’s a good place to have up your sleeve for bad weather if you’re visiting in the off-season like we did.
Ps: If you are visiting in summer I recommend checking the website for details of seasonal activities such as guided evening tours by costumed actors or mock battles that are staged mid-July to August.
For younger children, the Château de Turenne offers a more manageable experience as it’s a lot smaller but has a treasure room and the Caesar Tower that you can climb for a wonderful view of the fairytale-like village of Turenne below you.
Les Grottes du Roc de Cazelle
One thing I didn’t know about the Dordogne Valley is that its cliffs are filled with the remains of troglodyte dwellings. There are several different prehistoric parks in the region where you can learn more about this history but one of the most engaging, in my opinion, is Les Grottes du Roc de Cazelle.
Roc de Cazelle offers a fascinating walk through time, from Prehistoric Times to the Middle Ages, right up to the 1960’s, which is when these caves were last inhabited.
It uses life-sized models (Miles loved the wooly mammoth!) and real farm animals to demonstrate civilisation over thousands of years and is somewhere you can easily visit independently with no translation required.
Les Jardins de Colette
Les Jardins de Colette combine learning about the life of writer Colette with fun family games, gorgeous gardens and a mesmerizing butterfly-shaped maze.
We loved their charming seasonal decorations and activities but spent most of our time here truly lost in the labyrinth that includes fun escape-room style gates that you have to crack open with a code.
Top tip: Ask reception for instructions in English and don’t say I told you but the answers are on the back of the booklet if you need a little help decoding them!
Village de la Madeleine
Another must-visit troglodytic village is La Madeleine, which offers a more hands-on experience with real life demonstrations of 17,000 years of human history. We visited during a time where there weren’t any activities scheduled but that meant our son could imagine himself in different roles throughout the cave dwellings instead.
The village itself is truly unique, built in a long hollow cut into the side of the cliff and boasting its own private chapel that overlooks the river. There’s also a farm at the foot of the cliff with animal feeding experiences in the summer months.
15th-Century Paper Mill Moulin de la Rouzique
I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t too sure how this approximately 2-hour immersive tour of a historic paper mill was going to go down with my son but he came away saying he loved it!
We were the only English family on the tour but it was conducted in both English and French and Miles found it fascinating going through all the different steps of the paper making process and getting up close with the different machinery. The guide was excellent at engaging all the children and we really appreciated the bilingual tour so we didn’t miss out on the background story.
They also hold child-friendly workshops throughout the year and were holding a popular Halloween decoration activity during our visit.
Château de Montbaizac
Proving that in the Dordogne they can make anything family-friendly, our last recommendation for things to do in the Dordogne Valley with kids is visiting Château de Montbaizac.
This impressive Renaissance château and vineyard offers an immersive look at their wine making process, including a game for children where they have to solve puzzles to discover the lost recipe for grape juice.
Whilst my personal highlights were enjoying the panoramic views and wine tasting, Miles really enjoyed this game hidden in the château’s cellars.
A note on off-season travel:
Off-season travel is a huge trend at the moment and I have to say that visiting the Dordogne Valley in October was wonderful because it was crowd-free, stress-free and if we’d arrived a few days earlier it would have been mild and rain-free too! We were just a tiny bit unlucky with the weather but it didn’t impact our trip as we were prepared for it.
We did so much in such a short time because we never had to queue or take breaks in the shade and the Dordogne Valley looked beautiful in autumnal colours.
If you are planning to visit in the summer months it does open up more opportunities for outdoor activities including hiking, kayaking and cycling the popular car-free Voies Vertes.
I recommend checking out these articles for more ideas on things to do with kids in summer:
Summer guide to Dordogne Valley
Things to do in the Dordogne with kids
Must-visit villages in the Dordogne Valley
The Dordogne Valley boasts 19 of the official ‘Most Beautiful Villages in France’ making it one of the richest regions when it comes to authentic beauty, culture and heritage.
I feel like we saw a stunning panorama or picture-book village every 10 minutes when driving through this region but some outstanding places we visited that I’d like to recommend are:
La Roque Gageac
This historic village on the Dordogne River is a great place to embark on a boat trip or kayaking experience.
Turenne
A picturesque hilltop village that boasts fairy-tale-like turrets and 16th and 17th century mansions at every turn.
Limeuil
A timeless village that also boasts an amazing view of the confluence of the Dordogne and Vezere Rivers from the Panoramic Gardens of Limeuil.
Monpazier
One of the best-preserved medieval towns in the Dordogne Valley that dates back to the 13th Century. I’ve shared a mini guide to Monpazier in this Instagram post here.
Sarlat
A culinary hub with the highest number of protected monuments in France. It’s the perfect place to try regional specialities like foie gras and truffles at their artisan stores or farmers’ market. Bistro L’Octroi is a great spot to grab dinner after a wander through the gaslamp lit streets of an evening.
Suggested road trip itinerary for visiting the Dordogne Valley
Day 1:
Fly to Brive Vallée de la Dordogne Airport and collect your hire car. Drive 20 mins to Souillac & stay at stylish Maison Borrèze in the heart of the picturesque abbey town.
Day 2:
Visit Gouffre de Padirac followed by lunch at Auberge du Gouffre. Explore Turenne in the afternoon then travel to Brive to stay at Domaine du Breuil. Enjoy a dinner of regional specialities at bistro-style brasserie, Le Comptoir Saint Sernin.
Day 3:
Spend the morning at Les Jardins de Colette and the afternoon at Lascaux IV. If you have time it’s also worth visiting one of the troglodytic villages in this region such as Village de La Madeleine or Grottes du Roc de Cazelle. Check into Hotel Le Renoir in Sarlat and enjoy dinner at Bistro L’Octroi – a 15 min walk away through the medieval town centre.
Day 4:
Drive through La Roque Gageac on route to Castelnaud Castle. Explore the Museum of Medieval Warfare and watch live trebuchet firing demonstrations then head to nearby Marqueyssac Gardens for lunch and exploration. If time allows, explore either the Panoramic Gardens of Limeuil or visit Moulin de la Rouzique paper mill. Head to Monpazier and check into Cabanes Perchées Dans Les Arbres.
Day 5:
Explore Medieval Monpazier and nearby Biron Castle. Don’t miss lunch at Le Croquant – a cosy and authentic spot with a small but perfect menu of delicious seasonal dishes. In the afternoon visit Chateau de Monbazillac for Renaissance architecture and wine tasting. Fly home from Aéroport Bergerac Dordogne Périgord, only a 10-minute drive away.
I hope this post gives you a million reasons to visit the Dordogne Valley with kids. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions and follow on Instagram to be notified of my next post on the best places to stay.
