Lyon location
 

Hi - 4 of us travelling to Lyon have researched hotels among other things and come up with 3. If someone is familiar with the city, can you compare neighborhood of Grand Hotel des Terreaux, Hotel des Artistes, Hotel la Residence. Everything we've seen suggests that they're all ideally situatied for metro, shopping, restaurants and nice area but I've been fooled before. They all seem to have same amenities so assume we should choose on location. THanks.

hi,
hotel des artistes is in the same area as the hotel i stayed in last year and thought it was in a great location. it was walking distance to most of the sites (across the bridge to vieux lyon) and good restaurants. it was great walking around that area at night; it's just beautiful. plus i've heard good things about the hotel itself from this board, so it looks to be a good pick! (i tried to get into that hotel myself last year, but it was all booked)
have fun in lyon and look for the traboules!

I received a special offer for Le Meridien in Lyon and am thinking about a couple of days there. It looks like a fantastic hotel -- highest in Europe on top of the new "skyscraper" in Lyon. It is close to the train station, but as I recall that would be a tram or bus ride to the old city. I'm tempted to stay there as at least it would be easy access from train station (walking distance with luggage?), and for two days, I could easily take the tram to the old city, which I will probably spend most of my time in. Any opinions or thoughts about this new hotel?

Sorry to hijack this thread, lily, but this seemed like an appropriate place to add my questions.

Hi
To get a better idea of where each hotel is, try and visualise the layout of the city, bearing in mind that it's all pretty compact and easily walkable.

The main shopping (and hotel) district is located on what's called the Presqu'ile - the "Peninsula" formed by the confluence of the Saone (west) and Rhone (east) rivers. Running north-south down the Presqu'ile, parallel to the rivers, you'll find the Rue de la République and Rue Edouard Herriot, Lyon's two big shopping streets. They link up the Place des Terreaux in the north (a huge pedestrian square with old buildings, the art gallery, a stunning Bartholdi fountain, many open air cafés, and the Town Hall) with the Place Bellecour (a vast square, where 2 metro lines meet, home to the Tourist office, close to many big shops, within easy walking distance of both rivers).

Continuing south from Place Bellecour, towards Perrache station which is near the tip of the peninsula, is the rue Victor Hugo, a pedestrian shopping street. It takes about 15 minutes to walk from the Place des Terreaux to Place Bellecour.

The main street in the old town, located on the other side of the river Saone (west of the Presqu'ile), is rue St Jean, and it runs parallel with the river. Many bridges link up the old and "new" parts of town.

Grand Hotel des Terreaux is located, as the name suggests, close to the Place des Terreaux. Hotel des Artistes is near a small, pretty square just off the Place Bellecour, and Hotel Residence is halfway down rue Victor Hugo.

To be honest, any of the three locations would be good, but if you had to choose, why not pick the Hotel des Artistes, as it has perhaps the most central location.

In response to Patrick, the Hotel Meridien is in the Part-Dieu area, which is a mixture of business and residential, with the station and Part-Dieu shopping mall. But it's a pretty charmless area (rather a lot of concrete) to my mind, particularly when you compare to other parts of Lyon. Transport options are good, but the tram will not take you to the old town from there - it only goes as far as Perrache station, so is probably not that handy! To get to the old town, you'd need to take the metro and change, or get the bus... To be honest, I wouldn't recommend this location to friends if they had the option of staying on the Presqu'ile.

Thanks, hanl. It's been about 15 years since I've been to Lyon, when I stayed in the old city, so I sort of suspected what you said was true, despite the LeMeridien site saying "take a tram to . . .". I remember the old city was quite a way from the train station. Think I'll opt for the charm of the old city or easy walkability there.

Dear hanl, thanks for taking the time to frame the options. It certainly gives me an overall perspective which is so helpful to a first-time visitor. Have a great weekend.

We stayed at Hotel des Artistes in May ('03). It was a perfect location, and the hotel was delightful. We were only there one night, but if I'd known how much I was going to like Lyon, it would have been longer.

Lily, I'm more than happy to help with any info you might need :)