Plan your Lyon trip

Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière

An opulent 19th-century basilica crowning the Fourvière hill, visible from almost everywhere in Lyon, with a terrace that gives the single best…

Tip Take the funicular up from Vieux Lyon rather than walking the switchback road, and time your visit for late afternoon when the light on the rooftops below is best.

Vieux Lyon traboules

Hidden covered passageways threading through Renaissance buildings, built so silk workers — and later résistants — could move between streets unseen.

Tip Start on Rue du Bœuf and Rue Saint-Jean, where the most accessible traboules are signposted, and go quietly — most pass through what is still someone's private courtyard.

Théâtre antique de Fourvière

A Roman amphitheatre built around 15 BC, cut directly into the Fourvière hillside, still intact enough to host a summer festival of concerts and…

Tip Climb into the upper tiers for the best view back down over the stage toward the city — most visitors stop at the lower rows and miss it.

Musée des Confluences

A startling, deconstructivist glass-and-steel building at the exact point where the Rhône meets the Saône, holding a sprawling, genuinely odd…

Tip The building's exterior and the surrounding Confluence riverside walk are worth the trip even if you skip the exhibits entirely.

Parc de la Tête d'Or

A huge 19th-century public park with a lake, a free zoo, botanical gardens and rose beds, giving the whole city — not just visitors — somewhere to…

Tip Rent a rowboat on the lake in good weather, or just bring a baguette and cheese and picnic on the grass like everyone else does.

Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse

A covered market named for the city's most famous chef, packed with cheesemongers, charcuterie stalls, bakeries and oyster bars — the fastest way to…

Tip Go hungry and graze several counters rather than filling up at the first one; a glass of wine standing at a stall is entirely normal here.

Croix-Rousse and the Maison des Canuts

The hillside silk-weavers' district, with its own quieter traboules built for moving fabric, and a small museum dedicated to the canuts whose 1830s…

Tip Visit on a Saturday morning for the Croix-Rousse market along the boulevard, one of the city's best and least touristed.

Place des Terreaux and the Musée des Beaux-Arts

A grand civic square anchored by Bartholdi's monumental fountain, fronting one of France's largest fine-art museums outside Paris, housed in a former…

Tip The museum's inner cloister garden is a quiet spot to sit even if you don't buy a ticket for the galleries.

Place Bellecour

One of the largest open squares in Europe, at the dead centre of the Presqu'île — more a civic landmark and orientation point than a destination in…

Tip Use it as your mental zero point for the whole city; most Presqu'île sights sit within a ten-minute walk of it.

Pérouges

A near-perfectly preserved medieval walled village about forty minutes east of Lyon, famous for its cobbled streets, half-timbered houses, and a…

Beaujolais wine country

Rolling vineyard hills just north of Lyon, easily reached by regional train or a half-day driving tour, with tastings at small producers far removed…

Vienne

A Roman town on the Rhône south of Lyon, with a well-preserved Roman theatre of its own and a Gallo-Roman museum, easily combined with a half-day and…

Everything to do in Lyon

Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.

Getting around

Lyon is built on a north-south spine between two rivers, and understanding that geography solves most of your navigation. The Presqu'île (the peninsula between the Rhône and the Saône) holds the main shopping streets and Place Bellecour; Vieux Lyon sits across the Saône at the foot of the Fourvière hill; Croix-Rousse rises on…

Flights

Compare fares into Lyon and pick dates that suit the days you planned.

Airport transfers

Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.

Car hire from Lyon

Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.