Individual tickets cost less if your paid sightseeing is limited to the Musée des Confluences and a day of urban transport. The Lyon City Card becomes more appealing when you also want included guided visits, a Guignol puppet performance or the leisure cruise during its included season.
Choose around the visits you would enjoy, rather than the number of offers on the card. Reservations, seasonal exclusions and separate attraction and transport clocks determine how much of it you can actually use.
City Card or individual tickets
| Criterion | Standard Lyon City Card | Individual tickets |
|---|---|---|
| Museum and transport cost | €32 per person | €19.10 per person, including first ticket purchaseBest |
| Attraction entitlement | Included partner admissions; other offers discounted | Purchased museum admission only |
| Urban transport purchase | Included in the card | Separate TCL pass |
| Validity | Separate consecutive 24-hour attraction and transport windows | Museum: one day; transport: 24 hours from validation |
| Repeat-entry flexibility | One entry per attraction and guided tour | Each purchased ticket’s conditions apply |
Individual tickets cost €12.90 less for this matched visit. Both choices cover the museum’s permanent and temporary exhibitions and the same urban transport area, but the card’s wider entitlement matters only if you use it.
An included admission needs no separate entry payment when you meet its conditions. A discount reduces a charge but still leaves you with another payment. Do not count a discounted activity as though it were an included visit.
Museums, cruises and guided tours
The Musée des Confluences brings scientific specimens and cultural objects together in exhibitions exploring life and human societies. Its angular glass-and-steel building is also worth attention. The card includes its exhibitions and priority access, making it a useful starting point for weighing a museum-focused visit.
- Name
- Musée des Confluences
- Location
- 86 Quai Perrache, Lyon Maps
- Site
- museedesconfluences.fr
- Hours
- Mon Closed
- Tue–Sun 10:30–18:30
- Essential fact
- A museum of natural history and human societies at the meeting of the Rhône and Saône in Lyon.
- Price
- €12
- Free Lyon City Card holders
The museum also opens on Mondays during local school holidays, except summer, and until 22:00 on the first Thursday each month. The late opening can make an evening exhibition visit part of your sightseeing window.
Les Bateaux Lyonnais offers a leisure cruise with French and English commentary. From 1 November to 31 March, choose an included cruise or Lyon City Bus tour. From 1 April to 31 October, the cruise costs cardholders €20 instead of €25, a €5 discount rather than included admission.
Cruise access is subject to availability, without compulsory advance reservation. You can reserve through the Tourist Office with your card, or collect tickets on the day at 2 Quai des Célestins.
Reserve the Lyon Tourist Office’s included walking tours through visiterlyon.com, by phone on +33 (0)4 72 77 69 69, or at its Place Bellecour pavilion. Use the confirmation-email coupon after an online or phone card purchase, or the code on the back of your card.
- Other included visits: the Basilica of Fourvière rooftops from April to November, and silk workshops at Maison des Canuts and Association Soierie Vivante.
- One Rewind audio guide is included, chosen from six tours, with reservation required. Segway, e-bike and food tours are discounted rather than included.
- Included Guignol puppet performances are available at Théâtre Guignol de la Croix-Rousse, Théâtre La Maison de Guignol, Théâtre Le Guignol de Lyon and Véritable Théâtre Guignol du Parc de la Tête d’Or. Book directly with the theatre. Places are subject to availability.
Card prices, activation and validity
- Standard adult, 24 hours
- €32 per person
- Standard adult, 48 hours
- €44 per person
- Standard adult, 72 hours
- €56 per person
- Standard adult, 96 hours
- €68 per person
These are standard card prices, without the airport-transfer option. Choose the duration around your wanted activities and the days you will use urban transport, not simply the length of your stay in Lyon.
Group your wanted paid visits before starting the attraction clock. Leave independent walks and leisurely breaks outside that window so that you have time to enjoy the included activities.
The card allows one entry per attraction, museum and guided tour over its entire validity. Leave enough time to enjoy a museum on that visit, rather than planning to return for another included entry.
For online or phone orders, collect the physical card at the ONLYLYON Tourist Pavilion in Place Bellecour, Westfield Part-Dieu or Westfield Confluence. Home or hotel delivery is also available for these orders. Allow for collection before the first journey on which you intend to use it.
The Lyon City Card app is a guide, not a replacement for the standard pass’s physical transport card. Keep the card with you for network validation, because having the app on your phone is not enough.
Trams, metro and airport transfers
Lyon’s trams are not fare-free: you need to hold and validate a valid ticket or pass. The City Card includes unlimited TCL buses, metro, trams, funiculars, shuttles and Pleine Lune night services across Lyon’s urban network and nearby suburbs, rather than regional travel.
- Comparable adult TCL Pass 24h
- €6.90 per person
- Rechargeable ticket, first purchase
- €0.20 extra
- Transport validity
- 24 hours from first validation; unlimited urban travel
The independent pass is the day-ticket alternative used in the comparison. If you already have a suitable rechargeable ticket, you do not pay its first-purchase charge again. Included transport is paid for through the City Card, not a general exemption from fares.
The standard card does not include Rhônexpress airport rail. For arrival at Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport, treat that transfer as a separate purchase unless you choose the Lyon City Card Rhônexpress edition. That edition includes a return Rhônexpress journey between the airport and Lyon city centre, usable independently of the days on which you use the card.
Stadium shuttles and Navigône are excluded from the card’s urban transport. Navigône is a river shuttle, distinct from the Les Bateaux Lyonnais leisure cruise: a sightseeing benefit does not give you river-transport entitlement.
Museum and transport value
For the Musée des Confluences plus urban transport alone, choose individual tickets. The matched adult total in the opening comparison is lower, while the card buys a wider set of admissions that this lighter visit would leave unused. Priority access is a convenience, but it does not turn unused entitlements into savings.
The balance changes when you genuinely want an official walking tour, a Guignol performance or the leisure cruise during its included season. These give you more to enjoy without another admission payment, provided they fit your card window and you can secure any required places. A tour you would skip without the card is not automatically good value merely because it is included.
Count only benefits you will use, at the price you would otherwise pay. Free walks and meals add no admission savings. A discounted activity still needs a separate payment, so its saving is the reduction, not the full ticket price.
This standard adult example does not decide the choice for someone entitled to free or reduced museum admission. Use your own admission entitlement when weighing the alternatives: a lower individual entry price makes the card harder to justify through that museum alone. The same applies if you will mostly walk and need little paid transport.
The trade-offs of each option
An admission entitlement is not a reserved place on a scheduled activity. Choose around the experience and pace you want, then secure places where reservations are required. The card can broaden your visit, but it does not remove availability limits.
Lyon City Card
Pros
- Makes it easier to try wanted included experiences without deciding on another admission purchase each time.
- Can bring museum visits, guided interpretation and a puppet performance into the same visit.
Cons
- Paying for a fixed window can tempt you to rush visits to use more benefits.
- You still need to arrange places on scheduled activities; the card alone does not secure them.
Individual tickets
Pros
- Let you change the balance between paid visits, walking and breaks as the trip unfolds.
- Keep spending tied to the activities you actually choose.
Cons
- Buying each paid activity separately means keeping track of several tickets and confirmations.
At the Musée des Confluences, a museum-focused visit means giving the exhibitions your attention rather than treating the building as another admission to collect. Leave room for the subjects that interest you, whichever way you pay.
Fred Romero from Paris, France · CC BY 2.0 · Edited
Old Lyon, known locally as Vieux Lyon, offers a different use of your day: explore the historic streets on the west bank of the Saône independently, with no admission needed for the walk itself. You can stop when you like rather than organise it around a paid activity.
Jeanne Menjoulet from Paris, France · CC BY 2.0 · Edited
City Card or tickets for your visit?
- Choose individual tickets for the lighter museum-and-transport visit. They cost less in the matched standard adult example and avoid paying for unused activities.
- Choose individual tickets if you mainly walk or want few paid visits. They leave room for long breaks and changes of plan.
- Consider the City Card for several genuinely wanted included experiences. They must fit its validity, seasonal conditions and available reservations. A long list of offers alone is not a saving.
- Weigh your own concessions and travel dates. Free or reduced admission can favour tickets, while seasonal exclusions can remove the benefit that made the card attractive.
- For a longer stay, explore independently first, then concentrate eligible paid visits in the card window. This keeps free walking days outside the consecutive attraction-validity period instead of using paid hours on them.
The card suits wanted, usable included visits, while individual tickets suit a lighter visit or a more flexible pace.
Sources & fact-checking
Checks against the sources below cover: fares and charges, services, and opening hours.
- ONLYLYON Tourisme et Congrès — fares and charges
- Musée des Confluences – Lyon Tourist Office
- Musée des Confluences — fares and charges
- Musée des Confluences — opening hours
- F.A.Q Lyon City Card – Lyon Tourist Office
- ONLYLYON Tourism and Conventions — service
- Lyon City Card 24h
- TCL — fares and charges
- Pass 24h | TCL
- Les voyages occasionnels | TCL
- Lyon Tourist Office — service
- Les liens utiles – Office du tourisme de Lyon
- F.A.Q de la Lyon City Card
