What the Lyon City Card Includes

The tourist office’s own list, sorted by how much each line actually matters to a visit — with the fine print restored.

The two inclusions that carry the card

Unlimited TCL transport. Metro, trams, buses, and the two Fourvière funiculars — the ride every visitor takes — plus the Relais park-and-ride car parks. One rule from the office’s own page, in bold because it bites: validate at first use AND at every connection — only then is the ticket valid. And one dark day: no TCL service on May 1.

26 museums, temporary exhibitions included. The flagship trio: the Confluences in its cloud of steel at the rivers’ meeting, the Musée des Beaux-Arts on Terreaux (France’s finest collection outside Paris by many judgments), and Gadagne — Lyon’s own history told in a Renaissance mansion in Vieux Lyon. The Roman Lugdunum museum by the theatres rounds the ancient side.

The experiences layer

• A guided old-town tour with one of the office’s own lecturing guides — book your slot early in the card window.
• The seasonal Saône cruise — included in winter, seasonal terms in summer (the office’s shop page carries the current arrangement); a bus sightseeing tour substitutes by season.
• The Fourvière rooftops tour — the unusual one: above the basilica’s vaults for the city’s best-earned panorama.
• Mini World Lyon with queue-skip, the planetarium, Guignol puppet shows and a silk-weaving demonstration — the family layer, genuinely included rather than discounted.

What stays outside — on purpose

Lyon’s food universe — bouchons, tastings, the food walks that define the city for many — books separately, and honestly should: those are evening products with their own logic. The traboules are free to wander (the 5.0-rated guided version is the upgrade), and single-museum visitors can buy the Confluences ticket alone for $16. Whether the bundle beats the singles for your trip: the worth-it math.