How Many Days Does Lyon Deserve?

The search data pairs this question with every card query — and with a surprising number of “Lyon or Paris?” doubts. The honest frame: Lyon is France’s best two-to-three-day city, dense enough that nothing needs a car, deep enough that day three never pads.

Day one — the hill and the old town

Funicular up Fourvière first (card-covered, and the morning light owns the view), the basilica and — if booked — its rooftops tour; down past the Roman theatres and Lugdunum’s museum into Vieux Lyon for the afternoon: Renaissance courtyards, the free traboules, St-Jean’s astronomical clock. The card’s guided old-town tour slots perfectly here.

Day two — museums and the Presqu’île

The Beaux-Arts on Terreaux in the morning (two hours, minimum honest budget), then the peninsula’s stroll south — Bellecour, the silk shops — to a tram for the Confluences and its anthropology-of-everything galleries at the rivers’ meeting. Two flagship doors, one card, and the evening belongs to a bouchon.

Day three — Croix-Rousse and the choice

The silk-workers’ hill: the maison des canuts’ weaving demonstration (card-covered), the slope’s own traboules, the market on the boulevard. Afternoon is the choice day — Mini World with the kids, the planetarium, a guided traboules deep-dive, or simply café idleness done properly. This is the day the 72-hour tier exists for.

The card-fit summary

One day: 24h card, Fourvière + one museum, math already clear. Weekend: 48h — the tier most should hold. Three days: 72h and Croix-Rousse. Longer: Lyon-as-base with the 96h — and evenings, always, to the food, which no card covers and no visitor should skip.