Best Transport from Milan Italy to Lyon France?

You do not have to get to the airport in Milan 3 hours before a flight to Lyon. Two hours is enough time. It is not an "international flight." It's not much but it does shave one hour off your analysis of which is better. I'd probably take the train if on vacation and fly if on a business trip. I would not want to deal with getting from Lyon airport into the center of Lyon -- it's not difficult but why bother when the train goes from city center to city center.

The best option would be the direct train from Milan to Lyon. But it is currentlly not know when that will start running again. When is your trip?

Are there even flights from Milan to Lyon? A quick check I saw one carrier flying a few days a month from MXP but there didn't seem to be daily choices. But even if 1 hour flights were an option given MXP is an hour from the city, arriving an hour early, a one hour flight and then getting into Lyon from the airport the 5ish hour train is still my winning choice even if it arrives an hour later.

If you're lucky by the time you travel it will be nonstop and you'll just sit on the train and watch the scenery and get off in the middle of Lyon. Check the stations but Part-Dieu is in the newer city downtown section (and is very busy) and Perrache is the more more touristy section on the island with the old town. If I had known that coming I would have saved myself a cab ride across the bridge at rush hour.

Hope that helps, I know this is the Italy board but Lyon is a great little city,
=Tod

Thanks for the replies. I thought it seemed a little strange that there were no direct train routes between Lyon and Milan. Hopefully that will be running again when I go in September of 2025.

There is one direct flight from Milan to Lyon on some little budget carrier I'd never heard of before.

There has been a special luxury train service running this year from Milan to Nice on restored period trains. By all accounts that has been worth every cent of its special premium fare.

The shortest and quickest train itinerary has been closed since August 2023 by a landslide. It had to be opened again by summer 2024 but we are already delayed to spring 2025.