Day Trips from Lyon
You do not need a rental car to see the best of the Rhône-Alpes. Lyon sits at the centre of one of the densest rail networks in France, and nine of its best day trips are reachable on a train ticket bought that morning.
This matters more than it sounds. Renting a car in France means an international licence question, a manual gearbox unless you pay extra, tolls, and the particular misery of parking inside a medieval village. For a city break built around day trips, the train is not the compromise — it is usually the better choice.
Everything below leaves from Lyon Part-Dieu or Lyon Perrache, both in the centre and both on the metro. Journey times are one way.
In this guide
Where these day trips are
Everything below leaves from Lyon Part-Dieu or Lyon Perrache, both in the centre and both on the metro.
Day trips from Lyon under an hour
Vienne — 20 minutes
The easiest and most underrated trip on this list. A Roman theatre still used for concerts, and a temple standing complete in the middle of the modern town, the way the Maison Carrée does in Nîmes but without anyone looking at it.
The Saturday market is one of the largest in the region, spreading along the river. Give it half a day, and go on a Saturday if you can.
Pérouges — 35 minutes, plus a walk
A walled medieval village on a hilltop: cobbles, one square, ramparts, and a sugar tart it has been making for centuries. It looks like a film set because it frequently is one.
The train goes to Meximieux-Pérouges, and from there it is a twenty-minute walk uphill — pleasant in spring, less so in August. Ninety minutes in the village is enough, which makes this a comfortable half day.
Bourg-en-Bresse — 45 minutes
One building justifies the trip: the Royal Monastery of Brou, a flamboyant Gothic church built by a grieving widow in the sixteenth century and almost untouched since. The carved choir stalls and the three tombs are extraordinary, and you will likely have them to yourself.
The town is also the capital of French poultry — poulet de Bresse, the only chicken in the world with its own appellation. Lunch accordingly.
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One to two hours
Annecy — 2 hours
The most beautiful town within reach of Lyon, and the one most worth the longer journey. Turquoise lake, canals threading the old town, flower-covered bridges, and the Alps rising directly behind.
It is a full day, not a half: the old town in the morning, the lakeside path in the afternoon. Go on a weekday in summer — on a July Sunday the lakeshore is a crowd.
Grenoble — 1 hour 20
A university city ringed by three mountain ranges. The reason to come is the bulles — the spherical cable cars that lift you from the riverbank to the Bastille fort above the city in five minutes, with the whole Alpine chain opening up behind you.
Walk down through the fort rather than riding back. Half a day, or a full one with the museum.
Mâcon and southern Burgundy — 40 minutes
The gateway to the Burgundy vineyards, and close enough that it barely counts as a journey. From Mâcon you can reach the Roche de Solutré, a limestone escarpment above the vines with a marked path to the top and a view across three regions.
For wine, the Pouilly-Fuissé villages sit within a few kilometres, though this is the one trip on the list where a car genuinely helps.
Saint-Étienne — 45 minutes
Not beautiful, and included anyway. A former mining and armaments city that reinvented itself as a design capital — the Cité du Design and the modern art museum are both first-rate, and the whole place is a lesson in what happens to industrial France. Half a day, for people who like cities with a story.
Further, but still same-day
Avignon — 1 hour 10 by TGV
Provence, in time for lunch. The Palais des Papes, the ramparts, and the famous half-bridge into the Rhône. The TGV makes this genuinely easy — leave at eight, be back by eight.
A full day, and the one trip on this list that feels like changing country rather than region.
Beaune — 1 hour 40
The wine capital of Burgundy, and a town built around the Hôtel-Dieu — a fifteenth-century hospital for the poor with a polychrome tiled roof that is one of the images of France. The cellars beneath the town are open for tasting, and the centre is small enough to walk in an afternoon.
Chambéry — 1 hour 20
The old capital of Savoy, with an arcaded Italianate centre that looks nothing like the rest of France. Quieter than Annecy and an hour closer. A good choice if Annecy is full, which in summer it is.
Practical things that will save you time
- Book TGV tickets in advance — Avignon and Beaune are much cheaper bought early. Regional TER trains (Vienne, Pérouges, Bourg-en-Bresse) are fixed-price, so buy those on the day.
- Validate regional tickets if you have a paper one — the yellow machines on the platform. Fines are issued and tourists are not exempted.
- Part-Dieu or Perrache — check which station your train leaves from. They are twenty minutes apart and not interchangeable.
- Sunday services are thinner on regional lines. Check the return before you commit to the outbound.
- Trains in France strike occasionally. Not often, but it happens. Do not plan a trip with a same-evening flight on the far end of a day trip.
The three worth a car after all
Honesty matters more than a clean list. Three of the best things near Lyon are not practically reachable by train.
- Oingt and the Pierres Dorées — villages of golden limestone in the hills north-west of the city, an afternoon’s drive with tastings. No useful rail line.
- The Pilat Regional Park — ridge walks an hour south, with the Alps visible from the Crêt de la Perdrix on a clear day.
- Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne — a flowered brick town with fifteenth-century covered halls in the pond country of the Dombes, best on a Saturday market morning.
If you rent for a single day, make it one of these three and take the train the rest of the week.
Common questions
What is the best day trip from Lyon?
Annecy, if you have a full day and reasonable weather — nothing else within reach is as beautiful. Vienne, if you want the easiest and most rewarding half day.
Can I really do day trips from Lyon without a car?
Yes, for nine of the twelve destinations here. Lyon has two mainline stations and one of the densest regional networks in France. Only the Beaujolais hills, the Pilat park and the Dombes genuinely need driving.
How far in advance should I book?
TGV routes — Avignon, Beaune, Annecy — get considerably cheaper booked weeks ahead. Regional trains are fixed-price and can be bought on the platform, so keep those flexible for the weather.
Is Annecy too far for a day trip?
Two hours each way is a long day, but it is the one everyone is glad they made. Leave early, take the last train back, and treat it as a full day rather than squeezing anything else around it.
Which day trip is best in winter?
Vienne and Bourg-en-Bresse — both are indoor-heavy and unaffected by weather. Annecy is beautiful under snow but the lakeside path loses its point in the rain.
Keep reading
- Lyon in 2 Days: The Perfect City Itinerary
- Annecy from Lyon: The Perfect Day Trip
- Perouges and the Medieval Villages near Lyon
Official information and opening times: SNCF Connect.
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Madison Laffont
Travel planner · Journeasy France
I have lived all over France — I moved my whole life, and every corner of it turned out to be its own place. Travelling once, I met people who were only going to see Paris, and I felt frustrated on their behalf. There is so much more. That is where Journeasy France came from.