Lyon as a Base: 3 Day Trip Plan
Three days, three day trips, all doable from one Lyon hotel room without ever changing your base. Day 1 is Vienne’s Roman ruins, the cheapest and lightest of the three. Day 2 is the Beaujolais vineyards, a car-or-tour day since public transit does not reach the villages that matter. Day 3 is Perouges, a medieval walled village that rewards a half day and punishes anyone who books a full one against it. Need more time, see the 4 day , 5 day or 7 day version of this plan, each one this exact spine with another day trip added on.
Book these before you go
- Reserve the Beaujolais tour ahead, small-group departures sell out fastest in tasting season. Book the wine tour
- The Perouges tour saves you the Meximieux-Perouges train connection and the uphill walk. Book the Perouges tour
- Lock in a Presqu’ile or Vieux Lyon hotel early, both stations sit a short tram ride away. Check rates on Booking.com
| Day | Day trip | Distance/time from Lyon | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Vienne | About 30 min by TER | Roman ruins, half day |
| Day 2 | Beaujolais + Pierres Dorees | About 30-45 min by car or tour | Wine country, full day |
| Day 3 | Perouges | About 40 min by TER plus a walk | Medieval village, half day |
Day 1: Vienne
Direct TER trains from Part-Dieu or Perrache run frequently and take about 30 minutes, book seats on sncf-connect.com the night before rather than risk a sold-out morning departure. Spend the first part of the day at the Ancient Theatre, built around 40 CE and still hosting the summer Jazz a Vienne festival, seating 13,000 for a working Roman venue rather than a roped-off ruin. From there, walk to the Temple of Augustus and Livia, dated to around 10 BC and one of the best-preserved Roman temples anywhere in France, standing in the middle of the modern town rather than behind a museum fence.
Cross the river to the Saint-Romain-en-Gal archaeological site if you want another hour of mosaics and excavated foundations, and check current hours on vienne-condrieu.com first since the site keeps shorter hours than the main theatre. The Gallo-Roman Museum ties the pieces together for anyone who wants the history rather than just the stonework. Back in Lyon by mid-afternoon, this is deliberately the lightest day of the three, and there is no good reason to schedule anything demanding for the evening after it.
Day 2: Beaujolais and the Pierres Dorees
Book a car or a small-group tour rather than attempting this by train. Public transport thins out past the main rail line into Fleurie, Morgon and Julienas, the villages that actually make the trip worthwhile, and none of them sit on a useful bus route for a one-day visit. A half-day tour typically covers two to four domaines with tastings of Gamay-based reds, plus a look at the golden-stone Pierres Dorees hamlets nearby, and beaujolais.com lists which domaines take walk-in visitors outside an organized tour if you are driving yourself. Oingt, one of roughly 40 villages in the Pierres Dorees group, is ranked among France’s Most Beautiful Villages, and the wider landscape carries UNESCO Global Geopark status since 2018.
This is the physically demanding day of the trip, four tastings plus driving between villages adds up by late afternoon, so plan a quiet dinner back in Lyon rather than another ambitious meal. If your dates land on 19 November 2026, Beaujolais Nouveau day, expect both the villages and Lyon itself busier than usual, book accordingly.
Day 3: Perouges
Budget a half day, not a full one. The walled village is walkable end to end in a few minutes, so there is genuinely not enough here to fill a whole day regardless of how charming it looks in photos. Reach it by about 40 minutes on the TER to Meximieux-Perouges plus a 20 minute uphill walk from the station, or about 30 minutes by car with visitor parking just outside the gates for a couple of euros. It is worth the detour for the cobblestone streets and the local galette pastry alone, a sugared tart specific to the village, but treating it as a whole-day destination wastes the afternoon on a place with nothing left to do by lunchtime.
Return to Lyon by early afternoon and use the rest of the day for a proper bouchon dinner rather than more sightseeing squeezed in for its own sake. If you would rather skip the train connection and uphill walk entirely, a half-day tour handles the transport and usually adds context on the village’s medieval defensive walls that a solo visit would miss.
Is Perouges worth a full day?
No. The village itself takes only a few minutes to walk end to end, so a half day, including the train connection or a short drive, covers it comfortably. Pairing it with the return leg of a longer trip, or simply treating it as a light morning before an ordinary Lyon afternoon, makes far better use of the day than booking a dedicated round trip for it alone.
Is Beaujolais doable without a car?
Not really. The rail line stops well short of the villages that matter, Fleurie, Morgon and Julienas among them, so a rental car or an organized tour is the only practical way to visit more than one domaine. A tour also means you are not the one driving after several tastings, which is worth more than the extra cost once the day is actually underway.
Do the Beaujolais day in the middle of the trip, not first or last. It is the most demanding day physically, tasting stops and driving between villages add up fast, and you want a lighter day like Vienne or Perouges on either side of it to actually recover.