Lyon or Nice?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on good for families and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Lyon if you are travelling with children or came mainly to eat and drink: more attractions and park space near the centre, more restaurants and a wider range of kitchens, and about twice as many bars, clubs and museums as Nice.
Choose Nice if you want the sea and the outdoors: 70 beaches nearby, four months warm enough to swim, more protected land within day-trip reach, and mild winters.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Nice leads by 73 points.73
| Lyon | Nice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 73 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 26 | 70 |
| Coast distance | 253 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | — | 1 km |
Places to eat. Lyon leads by 10 points.10
| Lyon | Nice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 79 | 69 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,691 | 1,231 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 40 | 28 |
Museums & heritage. Lyon leads by 9 points.9
| Lyon | Nice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 46 |
| Museums within 10 km | 53 | 27 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 25 | 14 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 47 | 52 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
Nightlife. Lyon leads by 14 points.14
| Lyon | Nice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 44 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 866 | 428 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 611 | 388 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 71 | 91 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 47 | 26 |
Nature & day trips. Nice leads by 24 points.24
| Lyon | Nice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 33 | 57 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 24 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 6 | 20 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 62 |
| Park area within 2 km | 120 hectares | 56 hectares |
Good for families. Lyon leads by 29 points.29
| Lyon | Nice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 30 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 25 | 4 |
| Park area within 2 km | 120 hectares | 56 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Lyon leads by 7 points.7
| Lyon | Nice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 47 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 86 | 60 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Lyon and Nice are level on 62.
| Lyon | Nice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 62 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Nice leads by 10 points.10
| Lyon | Nice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 74 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7 °C to 28 °C | 13.3 °C to 27.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 43 mm to 101 mm | 13 mm to 138 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 3 |
Where they differ
Lyon is the stronger base for families: many times as many tourist attractions close to the centre and about twice as much park space as Nice, so days can be filled without long journeys. Nice does have 3 theme parks within reach against Lyon's 2.
Nice is where the swimming is: 70 beaches nearby against Lyon's 26, and four months with the sea at 21°C or warmer, which Lyon cannot offer at all. For days out of the city, 24% of the land around Nice is protected against 6% around Lyon.
Where they are alike
Both keep their main sights compact. Lyon has somewhat more notable places within walking distance of the centre, but in either city a stay in the middle puts most of what you came for within walking range.
They also line up reasonably on culture and eating. Each has 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and both put a broad choice of restaurants near the centre, with Lyon holding somewhat more of them and a somewhat wider range of kitchens.
Which traveller are you?
Travelling with children: Lyon. Many times as many tourist attractions near the centre and about twice as much park space as Nice, so days fill up on foot. Nice does have 3 theme parks against 2.
Swimmers and sun-seekers: Nice. Lyon has no coast at all, while Nice offers 70 beaches nearby and four months with the sea at 21°C or warmer, plus far more protected land for days out.
Eating and going out: Lyon. More restaurants near the centre and a wider range of kitchens, about twice as many places to drink and twice as many nightclubs, and about twice as many museums for the daytime.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two cities carries no information: it reflects a national price level and is identical for both by construction. The €160 daily budget beside it is one national estimate, not a measurement of either place, so treat it as a national baseline and not a trait of Lyon or Nice.
Nice's beach and weather strengths concentrate in the same short high-summer window, when the sea is warmest and the coast is busiest, and the same annual figures hide autumn rain of 124-138mm a month. Lyon's family advantage counts attractions and parks near the centre, which says nothing about queues, opening times or suitability by age.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre). Nice: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (8 km from centre).
Lyon suits June to August, when highs run 26-28°C and monthly rain sits at 66-73mm, spread through the year rather than concentrated in one season. September still reaches 23°C but is noticeably wetter, and winter falls to 7-9°C.
Nice is at its best in July and August, 28°C with only 13-18mm of rain and sea at 24-25°C. Winter stays mild at 13-14°C and remains walkable, but avoid mid-autumn, when rain reaches 124-138mm a month.
Getting there
| Flying from | Lyon | Nice |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 10 m no fares LYS · 20 km | 1 h 30 m €78-111 NCE · 6 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m no fares LYS · 20 km | 1 h 55 m €76-223 NCE · 6 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 0 m €167-217 LYS · 20 km | 2 h 45 m €202-329 NCE · 6 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 30 m €79-99 LYS · 20 km | 1 h 10 m €69-133 NCE · 6 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 30 m no fares LYS · 20 km | 1 h 50 m €170-248 NCE · 6 km |
| BordeauxBOD | 1 h 15 m no fares LYS · 20 km | 1 h 25 m no fares NCE · 6 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 20 m €70-92 LYS · 20 km | 1 h 15 m €83-135 NCE · 6 km |
| NantesNTE | 1 h 20 m no fares LYS · 20 km | 1 h 35 m €129-163 NCE · 6 km |
| TunisTUN | 1 h 55 m no fares LYS · 20 km | 1 h 35 m €148-281 NCE · 6 km |
| MontrealYUL, YHU, YMX | 7 h 35 m €446-565 1 stop LYS · 20 km | 7 h 55 m no fares NCE · 6 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Lyon | Nice |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 160 m | 0 m |
| Main airport | Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre139 non-stop destinations | Nice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)6 km from centre129 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Lyon | Nice |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 519,127 | 357,737 |
| People per km² | 10,838 | 4,975 |
| Museums within 10 km | 42 | 16 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 148 | 65 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lyon or Nice somewhere new.