Vieux Lyon and the traboules: guided tour or on your own?
4 min read
The answer first
Go with a guide if the traboules are the reason you came. They are passageways through private buildings, and only some can be entered. According to Lyon’s tourist office, only 45 of the roughly 600 courtyards and traboules in the UNESCO area are open to visitors under agreements with residents, and agreements can end, so the list changes. A guide knows which doors are open on the day. If you only want a taste, the City Highlights Walking Tour includes La Longue Traboule among its stops and costs €22.
Going on your own
The tourist office publishes a visiting charter built around respect for residents and the handling of groups. These are people’s homes: keep your voice down, do not linger, do not block the door. Which passages are open can change, so ask the tourist office for the current list before you set off.
Three walking tours
- Private walking tour of the traboules (€37, 5.0/5 from 1,177 reviews). Three hours, live guide in French or English, private. It covers Vieux Lyon, the largest Renaissance district in Lyon, and the page mentions the silk trade and Resistance meetings in the Second World War. The page lists children under 10, people with mobility impairments and wheelchair users as not suitable, and warns that strollers are hard to manage inside the traboules because of stairs. The page lists the price per person, limits the group to 10 participants and gives Place Saint-Jean as the meeting point.
- City Highlights Walking Tour (€22, 4.9/5 from 1,320 reviews). Choose 1.5 or 2 hours, led in French or English. The 2-hour small-group version is limited to 10 guests and covers about 5 km; the 1.5-hour version about 2 km, both on mostly flat ground according to the page. Stops include the ancient theatre, Fourvière basilica (2-hour option only), Cathédrale Saint-Jean, La Longue Traboule and Place des Terreaux. It is a city tour, not a traboules specialist.
- Old Lyon to Bellecour on foot (€20, 4.8/5 from 185 reviews). Two hours, in French only. It starts at 7 Quai Romain Rolland, covers the traboules and Renaissance façades of Vieux Lyon, then crosses to the Presqu’île: Place des Jacobins, the Hôtel-Dieu and Place Bellecour. Not suitable for mobility-impaired, wheelchair users or visually impaired people, says the page, although its highlights also call the route easy and accessible to as many people as possible; ask the operator if in doubt.
Side by side
| Tour | Duration | Language | Price per person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private traboules walk | 3 hours | French, English | €37 |
| City Highlights Walking Tour | 1.5 to 2 hours | French, English | €22 |
| Old Lyon to Bellecour | 2 hours | French only | €20 |
Who should not book
- Families with small children: the private tour excludes under-10s, and the stairs make strollers a problem.
- Anyone with reduced mobility: the private tour and the Bellecour tour list mobility impairments as not suitable, and the highlights tour covers about 2 to 5 km on foot. The river is easier: see our boat trip comparison.
- Non-French speakers: skip the Bellecour tour, it is in French only.
Our recommendation
For most visitors, the City Highlights Walking Tour: rated 4.9/5 from 1,320 reviews, shorter, in English, with La Longue Traboule on the route. Pick the private traboules walk if the passageways are the whole point. More choices: Vieux Lyon and traboules tours and walking tours in Lyon.
