Lyon Day Trips in 7 Days (With Real Costs)
A full week built on the same 6-day route : Vienne, Beaujolais, Perouges, Annecy, Grenoble and a flex day, plus one more day back in the Beaujolais region, this time by rental car instead of a tour. Seven days is also where a shared rental car starts to genuinely undercut individual tour prices if there are three or four of you. Prefer a shorter trip? Step back to the 5-day or 6-day version.
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 seven 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 6 | Flex day in Lyon | None | EUR 0 to 30 |
| Day 7 | Pierres Dorees, self-drive | 30 to 45 min by car | EUR 40 to 70 car rental, split by group |
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 if Roman history is genuinely your thing. Check current hours on Vienne Condrieu’s official site first.
Day 2: a full day in Beaujolais
The villages worth naming, Fleurie, Morgon and Julienas, 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 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 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 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. Check current lake activities and cruise schedules on Lake Annecy’s tourist office site , and budget the entire day for the canal-laced Vieille Ville, the Chateau d’Annecy, and the Palais de l’Ile.
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, climbs straight from the city center to views of the Belledonne, Vercors and Chartreuse ranges; check current hours on Bastille Grenoble’s official site in case weather closes the line. Chamonix, by contrast, needs a full day just to get there and back with no direct train, so it stays off this route entirely.
Day 6: a flex day that costs almost nothing
Use this day for whichever went wrong, not whichever sounds best on paper: a missed connection reshuffled into a shorter Vienne repeat, a rest morning followed by a slow bouchon lunch, or laundry and packing. A flex day genuinely costs EUR 0 if you stay in the city, since Vieux Lyon and the traboules are free to walk.
Day 7: the Pierres Dorees on your own, by rental car
By day 7, the math on a shared rental car starts to beat individual tour seats if there are three or four of you splitting it. A one-day rental plus fuel runs roughly EUR 40 to 70 depending on the car class and season, against EUR 60 to 100 per person for the guided tour on day 2. Drive the roughly 40 villages of the Pierres Dorees at your own pace, starting with Oingt, ranked one of France’s Most Beautiful Villages, then wander into whichever hamlet looks quiet rather than following a fixed tour stop list. Parking is informal and generally free outside the smaller villages, unlike Perouges’ marked lot.
Across the full week, a realistic per-person total lands around EUR 150 to 260 for every train fare, the wine tour and the rental car split three or four ways, before hotel nights or meals. That is the entire gateway family covered from a single Lyon base: three free-or-cheap TER trips, one tour-only wine region, one full-day lake town, and one self-drive finish. Staying in the city itself instead of chasing day trips? Our Lyon budget guide and its own 7-day itinerary cover Vieux Lyon, the traboules and the bouchons without ever leaving town.