We did a one day visit by tour bus with our son and visited three chateaus, Cheverny, Chambord and one other that I can't recall offhand. There were only about 15 people on the tour (and this was in Aug.)and once we got to each chateau, you visited it on your own or joined a group there for a tour. It was a long day but a good one and our son(12 at the time) fairly enjoyed it, especially since we didn't spend too long at each. We did the Segway tour this past spring break and that's a much better time of the year to visit.