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Exploring Lyon is all about living your very best bon vivant life, whether it’s watching millennial silk weavers at work on 19th-century Jacquard looms in hilltop Croix-Rousse, admiring Renaissance art and architecture at the city’s Musée des Beaux-Arts, or learning how to craft some of the city’s finest culinary dishes.
Watch open-air performances beneath the summer stars at Fourvière’s legendary Roman amphitheatre or see performance art by young artists at the cutting-edge contemporary art museum. Whatever you choose to do spans the timeline of Lyonnais history.
Find things to do by type:
- Best for history and culture
- Best for arts and architecture
- Best for outdoor activities
- Best for food and drink
- Best for shopping
- Best for events
History and culture
Institut Lumière
Whenever I have house guests with children, this is the first museum I bring them to. Not that many know that the world’s first motion picture projected to a spellbound paying audience was minted in Lyon in the 1890s. And there is no finer place to learn about the pioneering geniuses behind this momentous coup in cinema history than the Musée Lumière. The high-tech museum waltzes visitors through the dashing life and times of brothers Louis and August Lumière. Their family home in Lyon, Villa Lumière (1899-1902), provides a fittingly cinematic backdrop for the many engaging exhibits and short films that unravel precisely their ground-breaking work.
Insider tip: As well as the museum, the Institut Lumière houses a cinema with regular screenings. English-language films are generally shown in the original language with French subtitles. This said, no French is required to enjoy the monthly ciné-concerts when a live pianist provides musical accompaniment to a silent black-and-white movie or summertime’s al-fresco film screenings beneath stars.
Website: institut-lumiere.org/en/lumiere-museum
Nearest metro: Montplasir-Lumière
Price: £
Confluence
Contemporary Lyon looms large at the Confluence, the city’s newest district constructed on wasteland at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône. I remember being wowed, along with the rest of the city, by the futuristic architecture when it rose from the ashes more than a decade ago. The permanent collection at its showpiece science and anthropology museum, Musée des Confluences, travels in time from the Big Bang to endangered animal species and modern mankind. Seasonal exhibitions on the first floor explore anything and everything (from extraordinary beetles to Japanese masked rituals).
Insider tip: Sail to the museum along the Saône aboard a Navigône river bus, operated by public-transport company TCL (buy tickets on board). Hop afloat at docks on Quai Saint Vincent and Quai Saint Antoine, alighting some 15 minutes later at the Port de la Darse stop at the Confluence. From May to September, riverboat Le Vaporetto hosts seasonal apéritif and brunch cruises; reserve online.
Website: museedesconfluences.fr
Nearest metro: Tram T1 to Hôtel de Région stop or Navigône water bus to Confluence stop
Price: £
Vieux Lyon
It’s no coincidence that Gadagne bears the name of rich banker brothers from the Italian city of Florence, 16th-century cradle of the Renaissance. This emblematic building in Unesco-listed Vieux Lyon is Lyon’s largest Renaissance monument. Inside, a captivating museum twinset unearths city history (Musée d’Histoire de Lyon) and the bewitching art of puppetry (Musée des Arts de la Marionette).
Playful, hands-on exhibits and a flamboyant collection of 300-odd historic-to-modern marionettes from all over the world enchant adults and children alike. This is also the place to rub shoulders with Guignol, a buffoon of a glove-puppet character created by local silk worker-turned-tooth puller Laurent Mourguet (1769-1844) in 1808 to entertain – and unwittingly – distract his patients.
Insider tip: Don’t leave the museum without exploring its hidden hanging garden, created in the 16th century and assuring a beautiful view of Vieux Lyon rooftops ever since – the epitome of romance, this is my all-time-favourite ‘secret garden’ in Lyon. Weather permitting, catch Guignol in action at an outdoor puppet show in Parc de la Tête d’Or, 6e.
Website: gadagne-lyon.fr
Area: Vieux Lyon
Nearest metro: Fourvière
Price: £
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Arts and architecture
Place des Terreaux
If you only have time for a coffee on one café pavement terrace, I urge you to do it on this monumental city square – car-free to boot. Since 1892, its star turn has been Fontaine Bartholdi, a larger-than-life fountain by New York’s Statue of Liberty maker. Admire France, personified as a fair maiden, hurtling along in a horse-pulled chariot over un café on any of the café terraces filling its parasol-shaded northern side. Cool down in contemporary ground fountains – a dream playground for little and big children alike as all three of mine will attest. Later, take a foray through fine art, from antiquity to modern day, at Lyon’s blockbuster Musée des Beaux-Arts.
Insider tip: Squirrelled away within the historic museum complex is a peaceful bench-clad cloister garden and, even better, a tearoom Les Éclaireurs Pâtissiers with art work by French fauvist painter Raoul Dufy and a summer-hot terrace overlooking the former 17th-century abbey. Éclairs in a rainbow of flavours are the pastry chef’s speciality: to go local I recommend a sweet praline-rose or savoury saucisson de Lyon éclair, topped with the city’s signature charcuterie and filled with walnuts and cheesy dip, cervelle de canut.
Website: mba-lyon-fr
Nearest metro: Hôtel de Ville
Price: £
Place Bellecour
Lyon’s evocative network of secret passages (known as traboules) are hidden, dark and sometimes disarmingly dilapidated, but these passages zig-zag to ancient courtyards, stairwells, dazzling wall frescoes and monumental staircases otherwise hard to find. Some date to Roman times, but most were constructed by weavers in the 19th century to transport their precious silks. Celebrated traboules include 27 and 54 Rue Saint-Jean in Vieux Lyon, and at 9 Place Colbert in Croix-Rousse.
Insider tip: Lyon’s efficient tourist office on Place Bellecour has do-it-yourself traboule maps and a Traboules app available on the App Store. Guided tours (in English) of Vieux Lyon and Croix-Rousse take in some in each ‘hood. To experience local traboule life, stay overnight at four-star boutique hotel Académie Hôtel, squirreled away in an atmospheric Vieux Lyon traboule, or MiHotel’s designer La Maison Rose with rooftop hot tub atop Old Lyon’s emblematic La Tour Rose.
Website: visiterlyon.com
Nearest metro: Place Bellecour
Price: £
Croix-Rousse
Dubbed Lyon’s “Hill of Work”, it was in Croix-Rousse that silk weavers established their canuts (workshops) in the 19th century. With massive windows and soaring, wood-oak beamed ceilings four metres high, it was a canut that we purchased, slowly renovated and transformed into a very stylish, light-filled apartment that we called home for 10-odd years. At the fascinating Maison des Canuts, inside one of these canuts, watch an original Jacquard loom in action and learn about the gruelling daily life of yesteryear weavers.
A 10-minute walk away at Soierie Vivante, try your hand at weaving your own piece of fabric during a three-hour workshop; the family workshops, complete with mini looms for kids, are great fun.
Insider tip: The city’s silk-weaving heritage is the inspiration behind the monumental art installation zig-zagging across main square Place Bellecour. Entitled Tissage Urbaine (2025), artist Romain Froquet evokes both the looms and the rich palette silk weavers drew on in his colourful art work filling the public square with both colour and much-needed shade.
Website: maisondescanuts.fr
Nearest metro: Croix-Rousse
Price: £
Musée d’Art Contemporain
You can rely on the line-up of seasonal exhibitions at the Musée d’Art Contemporain (MAC) to be attention-grabbing, provocative and invariably centred around an entertaining piece of performance art. The museum has a compelling collection of sound works as well as more conventional contemporary art pieces. Post-museum, enjoy a green meander in the city’s largest park, Parc de la Tête d’Or, complete with rose garden, botanical garden, a small zoo, cycling tracks and even that all-essential French boules pitch. Sunday afternoon, half of Lyon is seemingly enjoying an afternoon walk here.
Insider tip: A couple of permanent art works outside the Renzo Piano-designed museum can be enjoyed any time of day – or night – for free. Come dark, Maurizio Nannucci’s Blue Klein/Rosa Fontana light installation illuminates the building in eye-popping blue and pink.
Website: mac-lyon.com
Nearest metro: Charpennes
Price: £
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Outdoor activities
Fourvière
To appreciate Lyon's unquestionably elegant topography carved out from two hills and two rivers, lurch uphill in the vintage funicular from the Vieux Lyon metro station to Fourvière. This hill, crowned by a kitsch 19th-century basilica (1872-1896) and TV transmitter bearing an uncanny resemblance to a mini Eiffel Tower, was first settled by the Romans in 43BC. The city panorama from the basilica terrace is brilliantly bird’s eye.
Insider tip: From February to November, you can take a 90-minute backstage tour of the basilica’s bell tower and rooftop. The stiff hike up 345 steps rewards with a mesmerising jungle of sculpted turrets, chimney pots and gleaming bronze statues; the 360-degree city views are unmatched. Buy tickets and book ahead online.
Website: fourviere.org
Nearest metro: Fourvière
Price: £
The Saône
Get a handle on Lyon’s legendary two hills – the “Hill of Prayer” and the “Hill of Work” – with a two-wheel spin from Vieux Lyon, at the sacred foot of church-crowned Fourvière, to Tunnel de la Croix-Rousse at the bottom of hilltop Croix-Rousse where silk weavers toiled. Bike lanes along the Saône embankment ensure smooth cruising, and a digital counter inside the dedicated bike-bus-pedestrian tunnel clocks the thousands of daily cyclists who sail through it on their way to work.
The mile-long greenway, embellished with street art, coloured lights, music and intermittent digital projections, was Europe’s first road tunnel reserved for eco-responsible transport when it opened in 2013. Once emerging the other end, cross the Rhône and loop back south along the attractive, landscaped riverside quays of Parc des Berges du Rhône.
Go greener still with a peaceful half-day paddle in a kayak downstream along the Saône from the leafy river island of Île Barbe to the Confluence with Lyon Canoë. The scenic 12km (seven and a half miles) route sails right through the city centre, casting a fresh new perspective on urban sightseeing.
Insider tip: Grab classic or electric wheels at 420-odd Vélo’v bike stations or be guided with Lyon Bike Tour. Reserve a summertime lunch table at Buldo, with garlicky frog legs à volonté (as many as you can eat) on the city’s only floating terrace right on the water.
Website: lyoncanoe.com
Price: £–££
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Food and drink
Foodie hotspots
Few dedicated foodies make the pilgrimage to Lyon without dining once chez Paul Bocuse, be it at the late chef’s mythical, out-of-town gastronomic temple in Collonges-au-Mont d’Or (which lost one of its three stars in 2020, having held three since 1965) or at the more affordable Comptoir Paul Bocuse inside landmark covered market Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse. Across the street, admire a larger-than-life portrait of the iconic chef, frescoed onto the side of a building. Inside the market, the moules glacées (cold mussel ‘soup’) at oyster and shellfish specialist Maison Merle and a gooey round of Saint Marcellin cheese from Fromagerie La Mère Richard are other local legends. Avoid buying fruit and veg here unless you have to – weekly outdoor food markets elsewhere in the city are cheaper.
To sample future talent in the Lyonnais kitchen, mingle with students over lunch, dinner or drinks and live music at La Commune – an innovative food court that hosts chefs aspiring to open their own restaurant in Lyon. Resident chefs cook up a storm at La Commune for maximum six months, meaning an ever-changing rollcall of epicurean excitement at this unique culinary incubator.
To extend the experience further afield, consider a road trip along a section of the Vallée de la Gastronomie, stretching 620km (385 miles). In Lyon, the gourmet route delves into the secrets behind chef Joseph Viola’s award-winning duck foie gras and sweetbread pâté en croûte (think French-posh pork pie) and the city’s distinctive offal-based bouchon (Lyonnais bistro) cuisine.
Insider tip: Sign up for a themed tasting soirée (cheese, wine or cocktails) or cookery class – learn how to make macarons, choux pastry, Paul Bocuse grand classics, Lyonnais cuisine etc – at École de Cuisine Gourmets on Place Bellecour.
Website: ecoledecuisine.institutpaulbocuse.com
Price: £££
Le Petit Musée du Vin
Given Lyon’s Herculean viticultural heritage – this is a city right on the Vallée du Rhône’s doorstep for goodness sake – it was high time that Lyon got itself a wine museum. Since 2026, look no further. I was delighted to throw myself into the immersive multimedia exhibits throwing light on every aspect (smells, aromas and touchy-feely pebbles, fabric swatches, all sorts, included) of winemaking, from grape to glass. The setting alone, in a vaulted gold-stone cellar, is evocative. Self-guided visits lasting one hour take you from digital station to station, culminating with dégustation (tasting) of eight wines. And you get to keep the tasting glass.
Area: Guillotière
Website: lepetitmuseeduvin.com
Nearest metro: Guillotière
Price: ££
Croix-Rousse market
Gourmet Lyon has sensational food markets and nothing beats a tantalising Sunday-morning stroll through Croix-Rousse’s eponymous marché (market). Jaw-to-jowl canopied stalls and trucks set up shop beneath plane trees on Boulevard de la Croix-Rousse six days a week – it was here I would buy all my fruit, veg, cheese, all sorts, each week, every week. I also revelled in the social event it was, gassing with my neighbours and catching up with friends. Sunday morning (10am to noon), when the Fanfare Piston brass band often belts out tunes from its makeshift stage on the town hall’s steps, that the real fun happens. Feel free to dance in the street.
Insider tip: Once you’re done with drooling over stalls heaped high with fruit, veg, regional cheeses, hand-churned butter, charcuterie and olives, snag a table on the tree-shaded terrace of attractive, historic La Soierie, also known as Grand Café de la Soierie. Order a kir (white wine and blackcurrant liqueur apéritif) followed by a classic French breakfast or oyster lunch with locals.
Address: Boulevard de la Croix-Rousse, 1er
Opening times: Tue & Fri-Sun, 6am-1.30pm; Wed-Thu, 6am-1pm
Area: Croix-Rousse
Nearest metro: Croix-Rousse
Price: £
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Shopping
Vieux Lyon
I love meandering in Lyon’s old town – it’s handsome enough to rival the finest in Italy. Pick your moment – early morning or end of day mid-week is best – to mooch the labyrinth of medieval and Renaissance townhouses, brick-red cobbled lanes, steep staircases and hidden alleys straddling the left bank of the Saône river. At its heart stands the cathedral, with striking Flamboyant Gothic façade from the 15th century, and a cluster of small house museums.
Insider tip: Specialist independent boutiques and souvenir shops line pedestrian rue Saint-Jean and rue du Bœuf, and are lovely to browse. Taste and buy a traditional brioche, roulé (pastry) or tart sweetened with bright pink praline – a Lyon speciality – at Boulangerie du Palais. Or pair an orange-blossom financier (small almond cake) or caramelised brownie with locally roasted Mokxa coffee at fashionable café-pâtisserie Duclef.
Website: primatiale.fr
Nearest metro: Vieux Lyon
Price: Free
Les Puces du Canal
Anyone familiar with Paris’s iconic flea market in Saint-Ouen will have a ball at Les Puces du Canal – Lyon’s counterpart in the eastern suburb of Villeurbanne. The sprawling flea market operates three days a week, but it is on Sunday when what can feel like half of Lyon gravitates here to browse stalls, chit-chat with friends over un verre (a glass of wine) in a market café-bar or celebrate early-bird bargains with a meaty Lyonnais mâchon (traditional silk-weaver’s mid-morning “brunch”).
Expect to get lost in the labyrinth of 600-odd stalls – inside hangars, containers and outside – selling antiques, vintage design, second-hand fashion and upcycled creations. Yearning for a Lyonnais pot (thick-bottomed glass bottle for wine) to take home? This is the place. Bring hard cash.
Insider tip: Weave your way through the market to Oscar, a people-watching paradise with the gourmet bonus of Lyonnais pork pie, duck terrine and andouillette (tripe sausage) fresh from Lyon’s most illustrious charcuterie house Maison Bobosse. For pud, order cottage cheese-esque faisselle with cream and sugar.
Website: pucesducanal.com
Nearest metro: Laurent Bonnevay, then bus 7
Price: £
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Events
Les Nuits de Fourvière
Some 175,000 art lovers flock each year – cushions and rugs in hand to combat the centuries-old hard stone seats – to the city’s ancient Roman amphitheatre on Fourvière hill to catch theatre, music, opera, dance and circus performances beneath the stars during Les Nuits de Fourvière. The two-month-long arts festival has been one of the biggest dates in Lyon’s cultural calendar since 1946. It runs from late May or early June to late July.
Insider tip: Headline acts (which has included everyone from Sting to Massive Attack, Arctic Monkeys and France’s much-loved IAM) sell out long in advance, so be sure to book early. Even if it’s close to the time of the festival though, you’ll still be able to get tickets for dozens of other acts. Buy tickets online.
Website: nuitsdefourviere.com
Nearest metro: Fourvière
Price: £–££
Fête des Lumières
No nocturnal festival bedazzles quite like Lyon’s annual Festival of Lights in early December. Over four days, more than two million visitors pour into the city after dark to gawp in awe at a spelling-binding kaleidoscope of light shows and installations, projected on building façades, fountains, streets, squares and parks – you name it! Al fresco theatre performances, music concerts, pavement cafés and food trucks selling all manner of food and drink ensure an intoxicatingly festive atmosphere. On December 8, locals place lit candles on windowsills to commemorate the Virgin Mary, as they have done since 1852.
Insider tip: Reserve accommodation months in advance. Key venues to catch headline performances include Place des Terreaux, Place Bellecour, Place des Célestins and handsome Place des Jacobins. When the urban crowds overwhelm (they will), take a breather (sort of – the city park also gets packed) in illuminated Parc de la Tête d’Or.
Website: fetedeslumieres.lyon.fr
Price: £
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How we choose
Every attraction and activity in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets and styles, from world-class museums to family-friendly theme parks – to best suit every type of traveller. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest openings and provide up to date recommendations.
