VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon
LyonThe Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Lyon by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Alta, Utah or Lyon?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Lyon for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Lyon’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Alta, Utah 3, Lyon 12: Lyon leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Lyon 84: Lyon leads by 69 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 72 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Lyon 64: Alta, Utah leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Lyon 62: Lyon leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 54 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Lyon 42: Lyon leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Lyon 68: Lyon leads by 65 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Lyon 40: Lyon leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Lyon.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Alta, Utah
23match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Lyon
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Lyon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahLyon

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahLyon
Official language-French
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,610 m160 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre141 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahLyon
City population228519,127
People per km²1910,838
Museums within 10 km043
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Lyon somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.