Lyon City Card with Public Transport and Museums

Getting Around Lyon with Public Transport

Lyon's public transport network is fast and easy to use: metro lines A to D cross the city centre, trams link the main stations, the Confluence district and the university quarters, and buses fill the gaps. With the Lyon City Card you simply tap the card on the reader each time you board, including on connections, and travel as often as you like during its validity.

The card also covers the two funiculars that climb from Vieux Lyon station up Fourvière hill, a fun ride in itself. How to get from Lyon airport to the city? The airport tram is a separate service not included in the card, but once in the centre everything is covered. Note that public transport is not included on 1 May, when much of the network does not run.

Fourvière Hill: Basilica and Roman Lugdunum

Fourvière is where Lyon began: the Romans founded Lugdunum here in 43 BC, and the two Roman theatres on the hillside are still used for summer performances. The card includes the Lugdunum museum, built into the hill beside the theatres, with mosaics, inscriptions, coins and everyday objects from the capital of Roman Gaul.

At the top stands the white basilica, built between 1872 and 1884, with its richly decorated interior and esplanade overlooking the whole city. From March to November the card includes guided visits to the basilica's rooftops, which must be reserved at the tourist office when you collect your card. Allow half a day for the hill, and go up by funicular in the morning for the clearest views.

Vieux Lyon and the City History Museum

At the foot of Fourvière, Vieux Lyon is one of Europe's most complete Renaissance quarters, listed by UNESCO in 1998 as part of the Historic Site of Lyon. Its lanes are lined with merchants' houses, spiral staircases, hidden courtyards and the traboules, passages that cut through buildings from one street to another.

The card includes the city history museum, housed in a beautiful Renaissance mansion in the heart of the quarter, which tells Lyon's story from Roman times to today, together with a delightful museum of puppets from around the world in the same building. Is Vieux Lyon worth visiting with the Lyon City Card? Yes: combine the museum with the cathedral and a stroll through the quarter for a rich morning or afternoon.

Presqu'île Museums: Fine Arts and Printing

Between the Rhône and the Saône, the Presqu'île is Lyon's elegant city centre. On Place des Terreaux, the Fine Arts Museum occupies a 17th-century former abbey with a peaceful cloister garden, and its collections run from Egyptian antiquities to modern paintings and sculpture. It is among the largest fine arts museums in France and is included with the card.

Nearby, the printing and graphic communication museum recalls that 16th-century Lyon was one of Europe's great printing centres, with presses, early books and posters. The card also covers the resistance history centre and the silk weavers' house on Croix-Rousse hill, where you can see a loom at work. Note that some museums close one day a week, so check opening days at the tourist office.

Musée des Confluences and the Saône Cruise

At the southern tip of the Presqu'île, the Musée des Confluences stands where the two rivers meet, a futuristic building of glass and steel opened in 2014. Its galleries on the origins of life, the diversity of species, human societies and beliefs about the afterlife are a highlight for all ages, and the card gives you priority access.

From March to November, the card also includes a sightseeing cruise on the Saône, a relaxing way to see Vieux Lyon and Fourvière hill from the water. Evening cruises are not included. With a 96-hour card you have time to enjoy the museums, the cruise and the parks, such as the Parc de la Tête d'Or with its free zoo, without rushing between sights.