First time in Lyon. What do we see? Eat? Drink?

I had two great meals in Lyon in 2016-

Tetedoie Restaurant Gastromomique. A nearly 3 hour Sunday lunch. High-end fine fining, high-up amazing views. A tasting menu for around $100/head, plus drinks. The kind of meal I only have every few years but remember forever.

Daniel & Denise Saint-Jean. Bouchon style. Much more casual, but not much less decadent. Charming, in the old town.

Oh, and we ate our way through Les Halles, of course.

Don't have any hotel recommendations for you- sorry.

Hi Lindy, this is what I wrote about Lyon from a trip in 2017. I just checked Booking.com for the unique room in one of the traboules where we stayed in Lyon, but it’s no longer on it. But there were several non-hotel places still in that area for options.

“Lyon – I posted earlier about our hotel apartment in the Vieux Lyon area – a highlight and historical experience! We loved this town with the medieval old streets & Traboules to explore. Highly recommend the Gallo-Roman Museum & the Lumiere Museum. We also went to the Fine Arts Museum and the Tissues (Fabrics) museum. We bought two separate 1-Day Metro/Funicular passes for Days 1 & 3 and walked all over exploring the Traboules, medieval streets, market and Bellecour-to-Hotel de Ville area during Day 2. During our walking day, we enjoyed exploring all of the way back up to the Fourviere area near the Roman ruins and back down through some gardens. We had planned to see the Tete d’Or Parc, but the weather in Lyon was colder overcast with light rain. Summary: highly recommend Lyon for its diversity of things to do – Traboules, funiculars, museums, shops, etc.“

I was in Lyon in October. Your choices for food are endless. I had an excellent meal at Restaurant Le Merciere on Rue Merciere. I can reccomend the Quenelle--a local Lyonaise dish. (The Foie gras was also good.)

As for what to see, much has already been mentioned. The roman ruins and museum, numerous other museums. I will probably go back.

I stayed at the Mercure Lyon Center Beaux Arts. It was centrally located.

Thank you all for your remarkable responses. My husband and I took your advice and are now flying out of Madrid to return home. That means we can fly to Barcelona from Lyon which is infinitely easier and time saving meaning more time to immerse ourselves in Lyon. I am assuming that flying would be preferable to taking the train unless there are stunning views of the Alps--can anyone address that?

I don't believe I gave our itinerary which should answer some questions/address suggestions here: we fly into Paris on Oct. 6 and had planned to fly to Lyon on the 14th, but now I'm thinking of leaving on the 13th. We have been to Paris several times and while it is causing me pain to give up that one day (leisurely day of just visiting Montmartre (not a favorite of my husband), I may have found another love in Lyon, so call me fickle. . .
I would like three full days in Lyon ( I had not known of the traboules before and am wanting to immerse myself there) and then on to three full days in Barcelona which we have visited before but there is still more Gaudi to see with a day trip to Girona, not seen before.

From Barcelona, we will ?fly? to Granada to go again to the Alhambra but basically to sit in a carmen, eat, drink and ogle it from there. From Granada, we will ?take a bus? to Seville for three days. We've been to Seville and Cordoba. Alas, no time for Rhonda. Next time. Train to Madrid, which we've been to. Try to do something there in the half day that we'll have. Next day, flight to Newark.
Nothing is written in stone, yet. We can still adjust our schedule while in Paris and Spain.

We were in Lyon for 4 days in November 2021. Our highlights were:

• WWII Resistance Tour with Jean (https://www.toursbylocals.com/Second-World-War-Lyon-Private-Tour)
• Lugdunum Museum
• Dinner reservation at Table et Vins d'Ainay wine bar (https://tablevinsainay.fr/)

We stayed at the Rick-recommended Hotel du Theatre, which is significantly less than your budget (we paid 85E per night for a triple room), but we found it to be in a great location and quite comfortable. There are a lot of stairs though!

The train from Lyon to Barcelona is 5 hours. Considering the time you need to get to and from the airports as well as check in, security etc vs the train.....you'll save about an hour.

I took the train about halfway to Barcelona from Lyon. You won't see the Alps. Personally, I would take the train because part of my enjoyment of travel is the scenery. But you have to decide what is important to you.

I would absolutely take the train from Paris to Lyon instead of flying. You'd get from hotel to hotel faster than getting to even board the plane in Paris.

I would agree with taking train from Paris to Lyon. It’s a quick 2 hour journey on a comfortable train.

We stayed at the Hotel Mercury Beaux Arts. Our room had a lovely view of the Place des Jacobins. It was a very convenient location. Public transportation was easy to use, but many attractions were within walking distance.

We enjoyed the Museum of the Resistance and exploring Vieux Lyon. We also did a full day wine tour to Pouilly Fuisse and Beaujolais which was excellent

From Lyon to Barcelona, I would definitely take the train. The airport in Lyon is far away and expensive to reach (€15/each by public transit, €60 for a cab), which adds to the hassles of flying. You would have to leave central Lyon about 2h30 before your scheduled flight departure, then the flight takes approx 1hr, and it will take at least 1h15 to deplane and reach central Barcelona, so about 5hr total.
The train takes 4h57 plus 2x30min to get to/from the stations and is a pretty ride down the Rhone valley high-speed line, then through some coastal scenery between Montpellier and Perpignan - less scenic on the Spanish high-speed line thereafter but that bit is quick anyway.
Also, the train timing is perfect in the current schedule: leaves Lyon at 2.35 pm right after lunch, gets you to Barcelona at 7.32 pm which leaves you time to get to your hotel, unwind, and go out for dinner at the typical 9-9.30 pm Spanish time.

Recalculating!

Frank II and Balso you present logical arguments for taking the train instead of flying. It sounds quite cumbersome to fly from Lyon to Barcelona. Thank you for that. We, too, enjoy scenery Frank II. We just don't know what it is. Saving an hour is a plus. No Alps but Balso, you present some lovely images.

I can't wait to dive into everyone else's suggestions for hotels and restaurants.

We did a side trip to Lyon from Paris this fall -- we always spend weeks in Paris and plan at least one side trip -- Lyon this fall and we will be doing Annecy this spring. I would highly recommend getting a private guide for the Traboules. I did it on my own and that is how we spent most of our full day in Lyon -- I did get to see a lot and snuck into a few places that were not open BUT many of the well known traboules are now closed to tourists. COVID became the pretext for people who live in the courtyards to block access. We could not see several of the most famous ones. Others have told me that many of the guides have special access. We saw guides when we were out and about -- we never do tours when we can do it ourself, but this may have been a time to have gotten a guide.

We ate at Le Mercier and Les Lyonnaise, which is just across the Soane on the footbridge. The latter was just wonderful and the traditional dishes excellent. We had the eggs meurette, the quennelle and a parmentier and the waiter was lovely and recommended an excellent wine by the glass -- it was different than the one we had chosen and was very good. All around lovely experience. Be sure to reserve. We were there at a very low tourist time and yet the two couples ahead of us were turned away as it was full. I got the reservation the day before.

The food at Le Mercier was fine -- we had a nice potato soup in a crock and quennelle. BUT the waiter we had was one of the two rudest people we have met in France. We have spent months in France over the years and rarely had unpleasant interactions. This guy was a jerk -- There are about 5 dishes on their blackboard, but he 'could not understand 'quennelle''. And also could not understand 'velout parmentier'. and when my husband shifted to English and said 'potato soup'.. He then huffily denied that they served any such thing. Just a total jaca$$. We managed to get the quennelle and the velout -- which was a really fine crock of lovely potato soup -- but it was aggravating.

We dropped our luggage at the train station and walked over to Les Halles Paul Bocuse for lunch and to check out the market. I wouldn't put it high on your list, but if you haven't seen many covered markets in Europe it might be interesting and there are lots of places to grab lunch.

Our group of four traveling by train from Avignon to the Loire Valley stopped for a night in Lyon in 2018 and loved it! We are going back for a private tour of Burgundy from Dijon to Lyon on Sunday. While we only had an afternoon and an evening in Lyon then, we packed in a lot of walking and food!. Dinner at Daniel and Denise - excellent but probably need reservations. The tourist office offered guided walking tours around town (free). We had a wonderful local woman who was a retired teacher who spoke impeccable English for our tour. We must have walked 10,000 fast walking steps in our 3 hour tour and she provided lots of local stories. Before we met her, we had walked around to a few parts of the old town, visiting a lovely workshop where silk scarves, ties, etc were being screened. The different processes for printing and screening were explained and demonstrated. Lyon has much to offer and we look forward to returning. Enjoy your trip!

Good to know about the tours since I am very intrigued by the traboules. Thank you for that suggestion, Janet. Lynda, thanks for the info regarding the tours provided by the town. Stories of the French resistance in WWII captivate me for some reason. Perhaps because both my grandmothers were French. As an aside, if others also are interested in the French resistance, "A French Village" is an engrossing TV series about just that--a French village during the Nazi invasion. (Amazon Prime)
I had to laugh at the jerk waiter, Janet. I hope you get years out of telling that story!

It is remarkable how quickly I can fill a blank page from a new file (this one entitled "Lyon, October 2022") with all the suggestions from RS Forum.

the tourist office was not offering tours when we were there this fall due to COVID but I did see private guides. I assume that they will offer them again.

Janet! I've got to know. Who was the other rude person? You said one of two.

Depending on what you enjoy, you might like the Brasserie des Brotteaux. It's the decor that's most striking - elaborate Art Nouveau style. Traditional Lyonnais food - good but I imagine not up to some of the other places that have been mentioned.
oh - and I think the tourist office is functioning at least close to normal. I walked past there yesterday and it seemed busy.

when we were there the tourist office was open but the tours were not being done.

For hotels -- there are tons central hotels in your price range -- The one we stayed in was well located with a nice balcony view of Jacobin Square etc but it smelled weird -- so won't recommend.

Lyon is a beautiful, photogenic city. I was drawn by a designation a few years ago about how it's the most beautifully-lit city in Europe. At the time it was like the cultural capital of Europe, a marketing designation that is rotated every year.

You can read about bouchons in Lyon, which are traditional restaurants which serve traditional Lyonnais cuisine.

For instance:

The Sabodet is perhaps the most unique sausage in this category
though, composed of ground pork head (yes, the entire head – ears,
snout, skin, etc…!) and seasoned with red wine, garlic, and nutmeg.

https://foodie-lyon.com/en/blog/a-survival-guide-for-lyon-s-bouchon-menus

So make sure you know what you're getting into when you want to try authentic Lyon dishes.

I'm sure they have restaurants with modern and international fare, something you can find in any good-sized city as well as fine-dining Michelin star type of places.

I don't remember the meals, mainly the views and walking along the rivers, crossing bridges back and forth.

"I don't remember the meals, mainly the views and walking along the rivers, crossing bridges back and forth."

Exactly! While I'm sure that I will enjoy the food, I want the views, the confluence of the rivers and, especially, the traboules!
I am exploring hotels in Vieux Lyon to be near/in the middle of the traboules.
I will be researching all suggestions posed here. Thank you all so much.

I just booked a room at Hotel de l'Abbaye. Has anyone had any experiences there?

I stayed at a place on Place Bellecoeur.

Don't recall which one, probably on the SE corner of the square.

Nice at night because you could see Basilique Notre Dame shining against the dark skies from the Bellecoeur.

Great views from up in the Basilique over the city.

The Courthouse is lit beautifully at night too.