Lyon as a Base: 4 Day Trip Plan

Four days, four day trips, one Lyon hotel room the whole time. Day 1 is Vienne, Day 2 is the Beaujolais vineyards, Day 3 is the medieval village of Perouges, and Day 4 adds Annecy, the alpine lake town most itineraries badly undersell on travel time. Budget the full day for it, not an afternoon add-on. Need less time, see the 2 day or 3 day version. Need more, see the 5 day or 7 day plan, both this same spine extended further.

Book these before you go

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 4 Annecy About 1h50-2h15 direct by TER Lake and mountains, full day

Day 1: Vienne

Direct TER trains from Part-Dieu or Perrache run about 30 minutes, book seats on sncf-connect.com the night before. The Ancient Theatre, built around 40 CE and still hosting the summer Jazz a Vienne festival, seats 13,000 for what is a working venue rather than a fenced-off ruin, and the nearby Temple of Augustus and Livia, dated to around 10 BC, is one of France’s best-preserved Roman temples, standing in the middle of the modern town. Check current hours on vienne-condrieu.com , and cross the river to Saint-Romain-en-Gal if you want an extra hour of mosaics and villa foundations. A half day covers all of it comfortably, leaving the afternoon free to rest before three demanding days ahead.

Day 2: Beaujolais and the Pierres Dorees

Book a car or a small-group tour rather than the train, public transit does not reach the villages that matter. Fleurie, Morgon and Julienas sit past where the rail network gives out, and a half-day tour typically covers two to four domaines with Gamay-based tastings, plus the golden-stone Pierres Dorees hamlets around Oingt, listed at beaujolais.com . Oingt itself is ranked one of France’s Most Beautiful Villages, and the wider Pierres Dorees area holds UNESCO Global Geopark status. This is the physically demanding day of the trip, plan a quiet dinner back in Lyon afterward rather than another big meal.

Day 3: Perouges

A half day only. The walled village takes minutes to walk end to end, reached by about 40 minutes on the TER to Meximieux-Perouges plus a 20 minute uphill walk, or 30 minutes by car with cheap parking just outside the gates. Worth it for the cobblestones and the local galette pastry, not worth a full day’s schedule against it. Return to Lyon by early afternoon and save the rest of the day for a bouchon dinner rather than more sightseeing.

Day 4: Annecy

This is the day the itinerary actually needs a full day for, and the one most guides get wrong on timing. Direct TER trains from Part-Dieu run 1h50 to about 2h15, so four hours round trip before you have seen anything, and only around six direct services run daily, with the rest requiring a change. Take the earliest reasonable train out and confirm your return service before you leave the hotel that morning. Once there, the canal-laced Vieille Ville, the lake itself, and the Chateau d’Annecy are the core sights, and the Col de la Forclaz viewpoint above the lake is worth the extra effort if you have a car or join a tour that includes it. Check current lake-cruise and cable-car schedules on lac-annecy.com .

Fares for the direct TER start from roughly 25 euros booked ahead, occasionally lower on off-peak promotional fares, and rise sharply if you buy on the day. Summer weekends see the worst crowding on both the train and the lakefront itself, so a weekday trip is noticeably more relaxed if your schedule allows it. Lunch is easy in the Vieille Ville, canal-side tables are the obvious draw and the food does not need to be exceptional to justify the setting; save any splurge meal for back in Lyon, where the kitchens are genuinely better.

Because this is the last full day of a four-day trip, it packs Annecy directly against your departure. If your flight or onward train leaves early the next morning, add a fifth day rather than gamble on a delayed connection back from the lake, since a missed direct service can mean waiting an hour or more for the next one. The lake and mountain scenery justify the travel time on their own merits, but only if the day is actually set aside for it rather than treated as a bonus stop tacked onto something else.

How long does the Annecy day trip actually take?

Longer than the “quick hop” framing you will see elsewhere. Direct trains run 1h50 to 2h15 each way, meaning close to four hours of travel before any sightseeing starts. Treat this as a dedicated full day, take the earliest workable departure, and do not schedule anything else around it.

Is Beaujolais doable without a car?

Not comfortably. Public transit stops well short of villages like Fleurie and Morgon, so a car or a small-group tour is the realistic way to taste more than one domaine in a day, and it means someone else drives afterward rather than you.

Is Perouges worth a full day?

No. It is walkable end to end in a few minutes, so a half day, including the train connection or a short drive, covers it. Pair it with a lighter morning or afternoon rather than booking a dedicated round trip against it.

Four days packs Annecy against your departure, so confirm your return service the night before rather than the morning of. If your onward travel is early, treat this as a strong argument for the five day version of this plan instead.