Three days between two rivers: the Renaissance passages of Vieux Lyon and the Roman hill above them, the Presqu'île and the silk-workers' slopes of the Croix-Rousse, then the Confluence museum and the big park, with two bouchon meals along the way.
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Checked October 10, 2026. That’s the day we last confirmed the hours, prices and closed days.
May, June and September are warm and the terraces are full. July and August are hot and many bouchons close for two or three weeks. The Fête des Lumières runs December 5 to 8, 2026; hotels sell out months ahead and double their rates, so book early or come the week before.
The Presqu'île between Bellecour and Terreaux puts everything within a walk or one metro stop. Vieux Lyon is pretty and quiet at night but the lanes are steep and the hotels small. The 6th around Brotteaux is calm, residential and ten minutes from Part-Dieu for the airport tram.
A TCL ticket is €2.10 in zones 1 and 2, valid an hour on metro, tram, bus and both funiculars; a 24-hour pass is about €7. Tapping a contactless bank card also works, at the single fare and capped near the price of the 24-hour pass. Four metro lines and a flat center: you will ride three or four times in three days and walk the rest.
Vieux Lyon · 45 min
Open from 8:15 a.m. and free. The 1379 astronomical clock in the north transept was repaired in 2024 and its automata run at noon and at 2, 3 and 4 p.m., so come back for the 3 or 4 p.m. chime after the traboules.
Fourvière · 75 min
The F2 funicular leaves from the Vieux Lyon metro station on an ordinary TCL ticket, and the basilica at the top opens at 7 a.m. and costs nothing. The terrace beside it has the view of both rivers and, on a clear day, Mont Blanc.
€2.10
Fourvière · 75 min
Five minutes' walk from the basilica, the two theaters are free and open from 7 a.m. The museum built into the hillside opens at 11 a.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. at weekends, is closed Monday, and costs €4 (€7 with the temporary show).
€4
Vieux Lyon · 75 min
Walk down the Montée du Gourguillon to Saint-Jean for a certified bouchon, where lunch is the cheaper sitting with a set menu well under the evening price. Order the salade lyonnaise and a quenelle.
Vieux Lyon · 75 min
Around fifty passages are open under a 1990 agreement with residents, every day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; start with the longest, 54 rue Saint-Jean through to 27 rue du Boeuf. Push the door, go quietly, and take no photos of people.
Vieux Lyon · 90 min
The rain option, at 60 rue Saint-Jean: film props and sets upstairs, hand-made miniature scenes below. It is open to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and 7 p.m. at weekends (from 1:30 p.m. on Tuesdays) and pricey, so skip it in sunshine and sit on Place du Change instead.
€22.90
Vieux Lyon · 120 min
A Lyon-certified bouchon with a Bib Gourmand, on rue Tramassac behind the cathedral; book, because it fills most nights. Start with the pâté en croûte, then the quenelle de brochet in crayfish sauce or tablier de sapeur.
Presqu'île · 45 min
The biggest square in the city, Louis XIV on his horse and Fourvière on the skyline. Walk north up rue de la République, the shopping street, to Place des Terreaux and Bartholdi's fountain.
Terreaux · 120 min
In the old abbey on Place des Terreaux, with a cloister garden to sit in and Egypt, Perugino, Monet and Picasso inside. It opens at 10 a.m. (10:30 a.m. on Fridays) and is closed Tuesday, and some rooms shut from 12:30 to 2 p.m., so do the painting floor first.
€8
Part-Dieu · 90 min
Bus C3 from Cordeliers or a 25-minute walk across the Rhône to 102 cours Lafayette. The counters serve lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.: oysters and Mâcon at a stand-up bar, or charcuterie and Saint-Marcellin.
Croix-Rousse · 30 min
Take the metro to Hôtel de Ville (lines A and C), then line C up the hill to Hénon and walk about 200 meters downhill. The painted wall at 36 boulevard des Canuts is the largest trompe-l'oeil in Europe and is repainted every few years to age its characters.
Croix-Rousse · 60 min
Walk along the boulevard de la Croix-Rousse, where the food market runs most mornings, to the glacial boulder at the eastern end. The esplanade beside it has the view east over the Rhône to the Alps.
Pentes de la Croix-Rousse · 75 min
Down the pentes on foot: montée de la Grande-Côte, then the Cour des Voraces at 9 place Colbert, a six-storey open stairwell where the silk weavers rose in 1831 and 1848. It traboules through to 29 rue Imbert-Colomès and is open until 7 p.m. like the rest.
Croix-Rousse · 120 min
A bistro of clocks and old mirrors on rue de Belfort, up on the plateau, with a short seasonal menu rather than bouchon staples. Book; if it is full, the bouchons around rue Royale at the bottom of the slopes take walk-ins before 8 p.m.
Confluence · 60 min
Tram T1 from Perrache down the old docks. Walk the Saône quays past the orange and green cubes and the former sugar warehouse to the point where the two rivers meet; the museum sits on the tip.
Confluence · 120 min
Natural history and anthropology in a glass and steel cloud, open 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday and until 10 p.m. on the first Thursday of the month. It is closed Monday except in zone A school holidays; the €12 ticket (under 18 free) covers the temporary shows.
€12
Confluence · 75 min
The brasserie on the museum's lower level does a plat du jour with a river view; otherwise the terraces around Place Nautique on the Saône side. Order a salade lyonnaise or the fish of the day.
6th · 150 min
Tram T1 to Perrache, then metro A to Masséna and ten minutes on foot to 117 hectares with a boating lake, a free zoo with giraffes and lions along the African plain, and a rose garden best in June. The gates open at 6:30 a.m. and close around dusk in winter, later in summer.
Brotteaux · 60 min
Out of the park's southern gate into the 6th: the 1908 Brotteaux station is now restaurants and a brasserie, and the streets around Place Jules Ferry are the quiet, bourgeois side of the city.
Brotteaux · 120 min
On Place Jules Ferry opposite the old station, a Belle Époque room with a long menu: the tête de veau, or a steak and a Beaujolais. If you would rather finish at Les Halles, only the oyster counters stay open into the evening and the rest shuts after lunch.
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From Lyon-Saint-Exupéry (LYS), the Rhônexpress tram-train runs to Part-Dieu in 30 minutes, every 15 minutes from about 4:25 a.m. to midnight; around €16 online and €17.10 at the machine, €10 for ages 12 to 25. The cheap way is TCL bus 47 to Meyzieu ZI and tram T3 to Part-Dieu, about an hour on ordinary TCL fares. From Paris, the TGV reaches Part-Dieu in two hours.
About €70 to €110 a day per person. A bouchon lunch menu is €20 to €30 and dinner €35 to €50 with wine, the three museums total €24, and a 24-hour TCL pass is about €7.
Plans change. Ask Chat and it proposes a reshuffled day you can apply, or just answers the question.
Yes for the three districts and two proper bouchon meals, with time to sit. A fourth day would fit Pérouges or the Beaujolais villages, and a fifth Annecy and its lake.
A small, family-run restaurant serving Lyon's working-class dishes: quenelles, andouillette, tripe, salade lyonnaise. Look for the Les Bouchons Lyonnais label on the window; around twenty restaurants hold it, and the two on this plan do.
Day 3: the Musée des Confluences takes a whole morning and the park has the greenhouses. On day 1 swap the traboules for the Musée Cinéma et Miniature. Tell Waystop it is raining on day 1 and Chat proposes a wet-weather version beside the original, ready to switch to from the day's menu.
Only if you will do three or more paid museums plus transport in a day. With this plan you pay €8, €4 and €12 for the museums and about €7 a day on TCL, so the card does not pay off.
Same country first, then the cities people tend to pair with Lyon. Want two or three in one go? String them together in the trip builder.
Add your dates, your hotel and who’s coming, then ask Chat to change anything: it proposes the edit and you tap Apply. Want a long lunch instead of a museum? Just ask. Every place is checked against Google Maps before it lands on your day, and Chat can tell you when to leave for the next stop. Going on to another city? Build a multi-city trip.