Lyon Hop on Hop off Bus Tours

One of the best things to see and do in Lyon, without a doubt, is to get on a tourist bus that will take you to see the most incredible places of the city, its monuments, its most popular attractions and also its most iconic restaurants. All this while an expert guide tells you all about the history and culture of this city.

The best thing about all this is that there are two incredible ways to tour the city, one of them is the tourist bus and the other is getting on board the streetcar, which is a means of transportation very similar to the bus that moves through the streets of the city. I tell you how it is to get on each of them and how you have to do to perform this activity.

Lyon City Tours is the company responsible for providing the tourist bus service in the city, so if you want to sign up for one of the best routes through Lyon, you have to go directly to the website of this company to buy tickets for the tour. This is a bus that takes you to the most popular areas of the city and takes you to the most important historical and cultural monuments.

In approximately 24 stops, both the bus and the tourist streetcar will take you to see not only the old city of Lyon, but also the Croix-Rousse district, which is one of the most popular cultural areas of the city. The bus makes strategic stops where you can get off and on as many times as you want and from where you can see more of the sights of Lyon.

The tourist bus has two distinct routes, one of them is the green route and the other is the streetcar route. The best thing about these two routes is that they complement each other, i.e. each of them takes you through different parts of the city. In addition, each route has its own defining characteristics and schedules.

Green Line

The green line is the main line of tourist buses in the city, because it is precisely the one that is completed in a double-decker bus with panoramic windows to see the whole city. This tour will take you through sites such as the old city of Lyon, Confluence and Fourvière.

Throughout the tour you will have access to an audio guide in different languages, including Spanish, Italian, French, English, German, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese. The tour starts at Place Bellecour and the rest of the route takes you through eleven more stops.

Terreaux, Mur Peint-Aller, Palais de Justice, Vieux Lyon, Perrache, Musée des Confuences, Berges du Rhône, Théâtres Gallo-Romains, Fourvière, Parc des Hauteurs, Mur Peint-Retour, are the rest of the stops on this route.

Tramway

The tramway is the second way to get around the city. It is a bus segmented into cars and with panoramic windows from which you can see the whole city while listening to an audio guide that is available in about six languages: Spanish, French, English, German and Italian. The best thing about this route is that you can choose between two routes of seven and five stops each.

One of the routes takes you to Croix-Rousse, which is one of the most popular neighborhoods in Lyon, because it is known as the city within the city. This place will draw your attention to its steep streets and its various interesting sites among which are the Fresque Végétale Lumière, the Mur des Canuts or the Fresque des Lyonnais.

This Croix-Rousse route takes you to seven specific places, including Place Colbert, Place Croix-Paquet, Cour des Moirages and rue de Burdeau. The other route on this streetcar line is Vieux Lyon, which passes by at least five places of interest, including Place du Gouvernement and rue Saint-Georges.

The difference between the streetcar and the bus is that the ticket is valid for a round route where there are no stops and you will only have the opportunity to see the city from your seat on the bus. In general it is more of a panoramic tour than a dedicated tour, as in the case of the tourist bus.

Duo Pass

This duo pass is one of the most sought after in Lyon because it combines the two types of transportation, the green line bus and the streetcar ride. This pass takes you to live the two experiences separately, when you buy it you have the opportunity to get on the tourist bus for at least one day and get off at the stops you want.

At the same time you will have the opportunity to hop on the streetcar and enjoy the city from the comfort of your seat. This dual ride offers you without a doubt one of the best city tours in Lyon, because not only will you be able to see every single place of interest in the city, but you will also be able to take amazing pictures from your seat thanks to the panoramic windows of the streetcar.

• Thanks to the short duration of these trips, this is one of the best options for sightseeing in Lyon if you are only in town for a short time.
• Both routes offer you the possibility of touring the city with an audio guide that is available in several languages, in the case of the bus you can choose between 8 languages, and in the case of the streetcar you can choose between 6 languages.
• The tourist bus offers you a ticket valid for a whole day and with free stops at the 12 stipulated stops.
• The streetcar offers a round trip and is one of the best ways to see the city quickly and safely.
• Both transport services are adapted for wheelchair users and people with other disabilities.
• There are multiple methods of payment and also discounts for children and others based on age and specific conditions.
• You can validate the ticket online without printing it, and the reservation can be made with a minimum of time before boarding.
• There are special discounts for large families and also for tourists traveling in groups.
• You can enjoy discounts if you have the city card.

The duration of the entire trip varies according to the type of tour or route you have chosen. In the case of the green line tourist bus, the duration of the ride can last an hour and a half, time in which you will go through the 12 stops. However, this is the minimum duration that the activity could take, assuming that you do not get off at any stop.

If you were to do the tour getting off at each stop, it could take you much longer to do the whole ride. It is important to note that the bus pass lasts for 24 hours from the time you buy the pass, so you can spend the whole day touring the city on the tourist bus.

On the other hand, the streetcar usually takes about an hour to complete the tour. In this case you would spend all that hour inside the streetcar seeing every site of interest in the city.

During this trip you will have the opportunity to see different incredible places of the city of Lyon, also because in each of the routes you will have the opportunity to see different places.

In the case of the green line, you will have the opportunity to see and know places like the statue of Louis XIV and the Tourist Office, both located in Place Bellecour. You can also see the Clocher de la Charité building located at Place Antonin Poncet.

The Lyon Opera House, the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Les Susbistances, the Palais de Justice, the Cathédrale Saint-Jean, the Théâtre des Célestins, the Musée Miniature & Cinéma, Musée des Confluences and the Centre d'Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation are other places you can visit during the tour.

Prices may vary according to the type of trip, in the case of the streetcars you can get to pay an approximate price of 10 euros per adult, while children over 4 years old will have to pay 6 euros for their bus ticket. The streetcar also offers a full ticket for families of two children and two adults, whose price can range between 26 and 27 euros for all.

On the other hand, the green line tourist bus offers tickets for 22 euros per person, while a ticket for children is priced at approximately 9 euros. In case you go with your whole family, you will have to pay around 55 euros to receive a ticket valid for two adults and two children.

The double ticket, which is the one that includes both the trip on the streetcar and the trip on the tourist bus, has an approximate price of about 27 euros for each adult and 11 euros approximately, for each child. For families consisting of two children and two adults, the price of this ticket can be around 67 euros per person.

The best thing about this double pass is that it is valid for two days, and it is certainly a good offer that you can take advantage of if you want to go sightseeing in Lyon with children.

The schedules of the tourist bus and streetcar vary from each other and also depend on the season of the year. During the winter months they usually stop their functions for a few days, or simply change the schedule a little.

In any case, there is no doubt that riding the tourist bus or streetcar is one of the best things to do in Lyon in May or any month of spring and summer, when they work for more hours per day. However, as a general rule, the tourist bus usually has at least seven departures a day, starting around 10:15 am and leaving for the last time around 5:00 pm, returning at approximately 6:45 pm.

Stops at each of the sites of interest occur every five to fifteen minutes, depending on the distance from one point to another. In the case of the streetcar, it usually departs between 11:30 and 17:45. Unlike the tourist bus, the streetcar has a particularity and that is that the schedule is the same throughout the year.

The way in which this means of transport works is very simple, although each one has its differences that characterize it. In the case of the tourist bus it works for a whole day, that is to say that as soon as you buy your ticket, you have 24 hours to use it, without exceptions.

You can get off at the stops you want and the price does not include visits to each of the sites of cultural and tourist interest, however, the company Lyon City Tours, offers some routes with guided tours in conjunction with the tourist bus throughout the city.

On the other hand, the ticket for the streetcar works a little differently, it is a tour in which you can not get off at each of the stops, but you will have the opportunity to enjoy the scenery from inside the streetcar.

About the validation of the bus ticket, the process is very simple, you just have to present your e-ticket when you get on the bus and with that your ticket is activated. You should also know that the tourist bus and streetcar work with the city card. In the case of the bus, you just present your card and you can get on. To get on the streetcar, you will have a discount of two euros if you present the card.