Inexpensive, easy way to travel from Lyon to Florence?

Sharon, In the same situation, I'd use EasyJet from Lyon to Milano / MXP (fares currently as low as €24.99), and then travel by rail from MXP to Florence (travel time as short as 2H:38M). You may have to adjust your schedule slightly, as I don't believe they offer flights every day. Unfortunately, the flights arrive in Milan at 18:05, so you would arrive in Florence in the evening. There are probably direct flights available from Lyon to Florence, but I suspect those will be less frequent and the cost will be higher. Air France flights currently appear to be in the range of $950 PP. I used an arbitrary date of May 15 to check the flights. Happy travels!

Thank you so much, good advice. Where would I go to check train information?

Thank you, I believe you are correct , it would be easier to take a train, we are seniors and don't want the hassle. Can you recommend a web address for us to search for trains? Sharon

Hi Sharon. I would suggest going by train; the actual train ride would be longer than flight; but total time and hassle would be much less, including time and cost of getting to/from airports, security check, etc. Trains will run several times a day from central city. You can take a French train from Lyon to Milan (scenic through mountains), then easy transfer in Milan to a bullet train to Florence. Wait until 90 days before train date to book; discount fares will be available. Enjoy your trip!

Lyon is a major station on the train run from Paris to Florence, Venice and Rome. From Lyon, the routes go through Torino, Bologna and then onto Florence. At the moment, I can't access www.tgv-europe.com to give you better information on journey times and costs (their website seems to be having problems).

Sharon, The best place for checking rail schedules throughout Europe is Deutsches Bahn (German Rail) website. For trips in Italy, I often refer to The Italian Rail website. One point to note is that schedules are only updated a couple of times a year, so if you're trying to research a trip long in advance, you likely won't find it. That's also true of most rail websites. Cheers!

Thank you all for your help, it will make our trip much easier (I hope) Sharon

According to the German Rail site, your fastest train route (7hr50min) is Lyon-Chambery-Torino-Firenze, departing at 08:40 and arriving at 16:30. If you make separate bookings well in advance (up to 90 days allowed), you can get discount fares for Lyon to Torino (book on the SNCF site) and Torino to Firenze (book on the Trenitalia site).