How Many Days Does Lyon Deserve?

Lyon is France’s best two-to-three-day city. Dense enough that nothing needs a car, deep enough that a third day never pads. Here is the day-by-day, matched to the card’s clock.

Day one: the hill and the old town

Funicular up to Fourvière first; the morning light owns that view. The basilica, its rooftops tour if you booked it, then down past the Roman theatres into Vieux Lyon for the afternoon. Renaissance courtyards, free traboules, the astronomical clock in St-Jean. The card’s guided old-town tour slots naturally here.

Day two: museums and the Presqu’île

The Beaux-Arts on Terreaux in the morning; two hours is the honest minimum. Then the peninsula’s stroll south through Bellecour to a tram for the Confluences and its everything-galleries where the rivers meet. Two flagship doors on one card, and the evening belongs to a bouchon.

Day three: Croix-Rousse

The silk-workers’ hill. The weaving demonstration at the maison des canuts is on the card, the slope has its own traboules, and the market runs along the boulevard. The afternoon is your choice day: Mini World with kids, the planetarium, a guided traboules deep-dive, or café idleness done properly. This is what the 72-hour tier is for.

The card fit

One day: the €29.90 24-hour card, Fourvière plus one museum. A weekend: 48 hours, the tier most should hold. Three days: 72 and Croix-Rousse. Longer: Lyon as a base on the 96. Evenings always go to the food, which no card covers and no visitor should skip.