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Day Trips from Lyon to Annecy, Geneva and Marseille

Posted by on

Hello!

We will be in France for 8 nights this summer for the World Cup and just wanted to check to make sure I wasn't trying to pack too much in... we love day trips abroad but I wanted to get thoughts on the following.

Arrive in Paris July 30th
Paris on July 1st
Travel from Paris to Lyon on July 2nd (first game that evening at 9pm)
Stay in Lyon on July 3rd (game that day at 9pm)
Day trips on the 4th, 5th and 6th to Lake Annecy, Geneva and Marseilles (I have found that about 2 hours either way by train is expected for each of these and that 2 hours by train seems to be standard to most worthwhile destinations from Lyon)
Lyon on the 7th (final game that afternoon/evening)
Train back to Paris to depart on the 8th

I'm not dead set on Geneva... Any other suggestions? My mom has recently do Avigon and Arles and said both were a little bit underwhelming which is why I was thinking about going that route.

We love to hike and to tour churches.

Posted by
5581 posts

I found Geneva very underwhelming.If you are interested in physics and would like to do a CERN tour, that'd be a reason to go. You could consider Chamonix/Mt. Blanc or go north a bit to the Beaujalais wine region or up to Beaune in Burgundy

Posted by
2456 posts

You say you love to hike and to tour churches but this itinerary sounds like you love to sit on trains.

There is enough hiking and church touring to occupy a lifetime right around Lyon, especially if you include Vienne and the area immediately along the Rhone riverbanks.

Posted by
5581 posts

I differ from many, in that, in general, I'm not a big fan of day trips.I don't like the backtracking and don't mind switching accommodations as much as others do. Just a personal preference thing. In any case, I sure wouldn't go more than 1 1/2 hours away for a day trip and preferably more like 45min to 1 hour.

Posted by
3996 posts

We love Geneva and if you want to do a day trip, I couldn't recommend it enough especially as you can enjoy strolling through the old city, select from a host of many boat rides on Lac Léman (Lake Geneva), see Jet d'Eau, and meander on the Rive Droite as well. RS may not be a fan but another PBS travel aficionado is -- Burt Wolf! He does a program on PBS called "Travels & Traditions".

Here is the episode. Check it out.

Posted by
1 posts

If you aren't locked into staying in Lyon the entire time, I'd recommend a night in Annecy and two nights in Chamonix. There is incredible hiking in Chamonix, plus you can quickly tour the glacier. Annecy is a very pretty, though touristy small town, and you can go boating or rent a bike and circle the lake for a very scenic ride. I'm not familiar with Marseilles.
PS, we are also coming to France for the World Cup. And while we are actually flying through Geneva, I don't find it a particularly interesting city.

Posted by
5581 posts

Regarding Geneva, we found lodging prices to be even higher than other places in Switzerland. If you do go to Geneva and are interesting in science, the CERN museum and tour is quite good. For the tour, you need to reserve, I believe, exactly 2 weeks in advance. We were in Spain 2 weeks in advance and I was worried about my wifi connection and having to use an ipad for the reservation so my son and daughter-in-law back at home made the reservation for us. I believe the tour is free. Sometimes the tours fill within minutes of when the tickets are released.

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