VacationSelector
White sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Shores
Gulf ShoresWhite sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon
LyonThe Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Photos: Gulf Shores by ourgulfshoresvacation.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lyon by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Gulf Shores 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 Gulf Shores for

  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Lyon for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • food and drink

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. Gulf Shores 84, Lyon 12: Gulf Shores leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Gulf Shores 38, Lyon 84: Lyon leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Gulf Shores 12, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 65 points.
Nightlife. Gulf Shores 32, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gulf Shores 52, Lyon 64: Lyon leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Gulf Shores 52, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Gulf Shores 75, Lyon 62: Gulf Shores leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Gulf Shores 15, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. Gulf Shores 22, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Gulf Shores and Lyon are level on 42.
Live music & performing arts. Gulf Shores 27, Lyon 68: Lyon leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gulf Shores 28, Lyon 40: Lyon leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gulf Shores and Lyon.

Your match

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

Gulf Shores
40match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Lyon
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Gulf Shores in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
165 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Lyon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gulf ShoresLyon

Where the figures come from

Gulf Shores has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Gulf Shores: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (3.7 km from centre). Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGulf ShoresLyon
Official language-French
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2 m160 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)54 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre141 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGulf ShoresLyon
City population15,014519,127
People per km²20710,838
Museums within 10 km143
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.