Lyon Day Trips in 5 Days (With Real Costs)
Five day trips from one Lyon base, running cheapest to priciest. Days 1 to 3 are the same Vienne, Beaujolais and Perouges route : EUR 6 to 9, EUR 60 to 100, and EUR 7 to 9. Day 4 adds Annecy, the one trip that costs a genuine half day of travel (about 2 hours each way by TER). Day 5 adds Grenoble, a single day of the Alps for EUR 15 to 27. Want a flex day or a full week? See the 6-day and 7-day versions.
Book these before you go:
- The Beaujolais wine tour: small-group departures sell out fastest in tasting season and around Beaujolais Nouveau week. Book the wine tour on GetYourGuide
- A half-day Perouges tour, if you’d rather skip the drive or the TER connection. Book the Perouges tour on GetYourGuide
- The Annecy day trip, since the direct connection through Aix-les-Bains puts some travelers off managing it solo. Book the Annecy day trip on GetYourGuide
- A Presqu’ile or Vieux Lyon hotel: lock this in early since all five days start from the same base. Check rates on Booking.com
| Day | Day trip | Travel time | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Vienne | About 30 min by TER | EUR 6 to 9 one way |
| Day 2 | Beaujolais | 30 to 45 min by car or tour | EUR 60 to 100 half-day tour |
| Day 3 | Perouges | About 40 min TER plus a walk, or 30 min by car | EUR 7 to 9 by train, EUR 2 parking |
| Day 4 | Annecy | About 2 hours by direct TER | EUR 10 to 25 one way |
| Day 5 | Grenoble | About 1 hour 25 by TER | EUR 15 to 27 one way |
Day 1: Vienne, the cheapest day trip on the list
Take a TER train from either Part-Dieu or Perrache to Vienne, about 30 minutes each way for EUR 6 to 9. The Ancient Theatre, built around 40 CE and seated for roughly 13,000, still hosts concerts and the summer Jazz a Vienne festival. Walk a few minutes to the Temple of Augustus and Livia, dedicated 10 BC and remarkably intact. Cross the river to Saint-Romain-en-Gal for an extra hour or two of mosaics and villa foundations if Roman history is genuinely your thing. Check current hours on Vienne Condrieu’s official site before the extra stop.
Day 2: a full day in Beaujolais
The villages that make Beaujolais worth the trip, Fleurie, Morgon and Julienas among them, are exactly the ones the regional bus network skips, so don’t try public transit here. A half-day small-group tour typically covers two to four domaines with tastings and usually folds in a stop in the Pierres Dorees, roughly 40 golden-stone hillside villages, Oingt among them, ranked one of France’s Most Beautiful Villages. If your dates land on 19 November 2026, Beaujolais Nouveau day turns both Lyon and the villages into a genuine local event, so book well ahead. Check Beaujolais’s official tourism site for the current wine route map.
Day 3: Perouges, the free half-day village
Perouges is a tiny walled hilltop village about 35km northeast of Lyon, free to enter and walkable end to end in a few minutes. By car it’s about 30 minutes via the A42, EUR 2 parking outside the gates; by train, the TER to Meximieux-Perouges plus a roughly 20-minute uphill walk. Try the galette de Perouges, a sugar-crusted tart sold from a single bakery inside the walls, and plan to be back in Lyon by mid-afternoon.
Day 4: Annecy, worth the full day away
Annecy sits about 101km from Lyon, and direct TER trains from Part-Dieu run anywhere from about 1 hour 51 minutes to 2 hours 34 minutes, averaging close to 2 hours, not the “1.5 hours” some older guides still quote. Fares run roughly EUR 10 to 25 one way depending on how far ahead you book. That’s 4 or more hours round trip before you’ve even reached the canal-laced Vieille Ville, the Chateau d’Annecy, or the Palais de l’Ile, the small stone building that has served as a fortress, a prison and a courthouse since the 14th century. Check current lake activities and cruise schedules on Lake Annecy’s tourist office site before you go, and budget the entire day for this one.
Day 5: Grenoble, a single day of the Alps
Hourly TER trains from Part-Dieu take about 1 hour 25 minutes for roughly EUR 15 to 27, no advance booking needed. The Bastille cable car, opened in 1934 as one of the world’s first urban cable cars, climbs straight from the city center to panoramic views of the Belledonne, Vercors and Chartreuse ranges; check current hours on Bastille Grenoble’s official site in case weather closes the line. This is the legitimate single-day taste of the Alps from Lyon; Chamonix, by contrast, has no direct train and needs a full day just to get there and back, so leave it off a trip this length entirely.
By day 5 you’ve spent roughly EUR 100 to 160 across four day trips plus whatever the Beaujolais tour ran, so keep the receipts if you’re tracking a trip budget. Want a buffer day built in, or a sixth day trip? The 6-day version adds exactly that on top of this same route.