5 Day Trips from Lyon by Train or Car

From Lyon, you can reach Vienne’s Roman monuments or Pérouges’s medieval streets without giving up a whole day. Beaujolais suits a car-based village outing, while Avignon and Annecy reward a full day away. Choose for what you want to do after arrival, not just the time on the train: a station transfer, an uphill village approach or a museum’s closing day can change the choice.

Choose your day trip

Criterion	Vienne	Beaujolais	Pérouges	Avignon	Annecy
Main experience	Roman monuments	Golden-stone villages	Medieval streets	Papal palace	Canals and lake
Main outward leg	Part-Dieu–Vienne: about 24 minutes	Bellecour–Villefranche: about 32 minutes	Part-Dieu–Meximieux–Pérouges: about 35 minutes	Part-Dieu–Avignon TGV: about an hour and a quarter	Part-Dieu–Annecy: about 2 hours
Onward approach	Vienne station–Saint-Romain-en-Gal museum: about 17 minutes walking	Drive onwards to Oingt	Meximieux–Pérouges station–Place du Tilleul: about 22 minutes uphill	Avignon TGV–Avignon Centre TER: about 15 minutes; Centre–palace walk: about 17 minutes	Annecy station–Palais de l’Île: about 9 minutes walking
Line or mode	TER	Car	TER	Lyria approach; TGV INOUI also direct; TER connection	TER
One-way fare and basis	Promotional second class from €7/person; selected dates, availability	—	€9.30 full fare; 12 August 2025	—	—
Published service pattern	Up to every 30 minutes	—	Up to hourly	16 corridor journeys/day	20 corridor trains/day
Listed late return; qualifications	20:09 route listing; Part-Dieu unconfirmed; days/seasons unspecified	—	20:16 from Meximieux–Pérouges to Part-Dieu; snapshot, days/seasons unspecified	20:49 TGV INOUI from Avignon TGV to Part-Dieu; days/seasons unspecified	20:53 TER from Annecy towards Lyon; days/seasons unspecified
Time away, including return	Half day; full day with museum	Full day; Oingt alone shorter	Half day	Full day	Full day
Selected attraction, adult admission	Saint-Romain museum €6; 2025 programme	—	Village free; June festival Sunday exception	Palace €16; with bridge €19.50	Palais de l’Île €4; July–August €5

Vienne is the closest rail choice here, while Pérouges suits a medieval-village visit near the hour mark. The train and village walk to Pérouges add up to just under an hour, before time at your starting station. Avignon and Annecy need a full day rather than a quick excursion.

Buy separate journey tickets for these regional outings. The one-day Léman Pass serves selected cross-border routes and zones, not these trips from Lyon. Treat the late-return listings as qualified departures, not an identical daily service promise.

Vienne and Saint-Romain-en-Gal

Vienne’s Temple of Augustus and Livia brings Roman architecture into the town centre: its standing columns are the first landmark to seek out. The Roman Theatre shows a different scale of ancient public life, with tiers set into the hillside. Keep to these central monuments for a half-day outing, or add Saint-Romain-en-Gal for a full day.

Take the TER from Lyon Part-Dieu to Vienne, about 24 minutes. Services run up to every 30 minutes. Promotional one-way second-class fares start at €7 per person on selected dates, subject to availability. Leave time to get back to Vienne station after visiting the cross-river museum.

Across the Rhône, the Saint-Romain-en-Gal archaeological museum and site reveal the Roman settlement beyond the central monuments, with excavated remains and collections to explore together. From Vienne station, the walk to the museum is about 1.2 km and about 17 minutes. Crossing the river makes this a separate part of the visit.

The museum’s September–December 2025 adult tariff is €6. Its autumn opening hours are 10:00–18:00 from 2 September to 10 November, then 10:00–17:00 from 11 November to 31 December. Plan the museum before a late afternoon spent back among Vienne’s streets.

Beaujolais: Villefranche and Oingt

Villefranche-sur-Saône is the town gateway to Beaujolais, while Oingt is the village to choose for golden-stone buildings and views over the vineyard country. Give the two a full day by car, with time to stop rather than simply drive through. Villefranche’s town streets provide a different visit from the small hilltop lanes you explore afterwards.

From Place Bellecour in Lyon, the drive to the Villefranche gateway is about 33 km and about 32 minutes. Continue by car into the rural Beaujolais hills to Oingt. Rail can bring you to Villefranche, but arriving in the town is not the same as reaching the villages: retain onward transport for the countryside portion.

In Oingt, walk the golden-stone streets and look for the Tour d’Oingt rising above the rooftops. The village’s hilltop setting gives the outing its vineyard outlook. If you want a shorter excursion, choose Oingt alone rather than combining it with Villefranche, and leave room for a meal and an unhurried village walk before returning to Lyon.

For independent sightseeing, a car lets you decide where to stop. If wine tasting is the priority, an organised excursion with transport makes a different choice: someone else handles the journey between producers. Keep the designated driver separate from the tasting, including when the visit is mainly about the villages.

Pérouges

Pérouges is a strong choice if your idea of a beautiful village is a compact, fortified hilltop settlement of medieval stone streets. Place du Tilleul is the natural centre of the visit, framed by historic buildings, but wander out along the lanes rather than treating the square as the only stop. A half day suits the village, including the return to Lyon.

Take the TER from Lyon Part-Dieu to Meximieux–Pérouges, about 35 minutes, with services up to hourly. The village is separate from the railway town: from the station to Place du Tilleul, the uphill walk is about 1.3 km and about 22 minutes. Allow yourself an easier pace on the climb if needed.

The adult one-way full fare is €9.30, dated 12 August 2025. The listed late TER back to Lyon Part-Dieu is 20:16 in the station timetable snapshot, without a stated operating-day or seasonal pattern. For a half-day outing, return after your village visit rather than building the day around that late departure.

The streets have uneven, rounded cobbles that can become slippery in wet weather. Choose shoes with grip. The paving is difficult for wheelchairs and travellers with limited mobility. A car avoids the station climb but does not remove the rough surface inside the village.

Avignon and the Palais des Papes

Avignon’s Palais des Papes, the papal palace, makes this a full-day architectural outing. Its fortified Gothic bulk gives the visit a clear centrepiece. Pont Saint-Bénézet, the surviving bridge across part of the Rhône, and the nearby Petit Palais add context without requiring another journey out of town.

The Lyon Part-Dieu–Avignon TGV rail approach takes about an hour and a quarter on Lyria, and direct TGV INOUI trains also serve this corridor. The corridor has 16 published train journeys per day. Avignon TGV is outside the centre: take the TER to Avignon Centre, about 15 minutes, then walk about 1.2 km and about 17 minutes to the palace.

For the return, allow for the journey back to Avignon TGV before your reserved high-speed train. The late direct departure listed from that station is TGV INOUI 6852 at 20:49 to Lyon Part-Dieu, without stated operating-day or seasonal qualifications. For the transfer, the Sunday, 4 October 2026 schedule has 31 TER journeys from Avignon Centre to Avignon TGV.

Adult admission is €16 for the palace, or €19.50 for the combined palace and Pont d’Avignon ticket. Choose the combined visit if you want to explore the bridge as well as see it from the riverside. Advance palace reservation is recommended, not compulsory. The high-speed train, by contrast, requires a seat reservation on the service you take.

For a fuller walk connecting these sights and the old town, the Avignon sightseeing route offers a useful continuation. It is a Marseille-based outing, but its sightseeing portion can shape your time here after arriving from Lyon. Keep the palace as the main visit and leave space for a meal before heading back to the stations.

Annecy and the lake

Annecy works as a day trip from Lyon if you give it a full day and keep to the old town and lakefront. The canals lead you towards the Palais de l’Île, the island palace set between branches of the Thiou. From there, continue to the lakeside paths rather than adding an onward boat journey.

The TER from Lyon Part-Dieu to Annecy takes about 2 hours. The corridor has 20 published trains per day. From Annecy station to the Palais de l’Île, the walk is about 700 metres and about 9 minutes. The late TER towards Lyon is listed at 20:53, without stated operating-day or seasonal qualifications. The longer rail journey makes this a day to start early.

The Palais de l’Île interior is the paid cultural choice beside the outdoor walk. Adult admission is €4, rising to €5 in July and August. Opening is 10:00–12:30 and 14:00–17:30 from October to May, with a midday break, while from June to September it is 10:30–18:00. If your arrival falls around lunch, enjoy the canals and a meal before the interior visit.

When time is short, prioritise the canals and lakefront over the interior. The building’s island position is visible from the surrounding quays, and the outdoor visit leaves more room to enjoy the lake before returning to the station.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: services and fares and charges.

• Train Lyon Annecy
• TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (SNCF) — service
• Musées d’Annecy — fares and charges
• Train Lyon – Vienne – Horaires et tarifs – TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
• SNCF Connect — fares and charges
• Département du Rhône — fares and charges
• Train timetables Lyon-Avignon TGV
• Horaires train Lyon-Avignon TGV – SNCF Connect
• Horaires train Avignon TGV-Lyon — SNCF Connect
• Les tarifs voyageurs
• Horaires train Avignon Centre-Avignon TGV — SNCF Connect
• Avignon Tourisme — fares and charges
• Avignon Tourisme — service
• TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes — service
• Horaires et prochains départs gare Meximieux – Pérouges | SNCF TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
• Plaine de l’Ain Tourisme — service
• Carte Léman Pass 1 jour : Léman Express illimité | TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
• SNCF Voyageurs — TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes — service