Property
Across the street from the Jardin zoologique.  Next door to a large cinema (with English language movies!) and several restaurants.  Glass and steel corridors that are great to play spaceship in.  The Hilton Lyon is a great hotel for families.  This conference center hotel may have been designed with the business traveler in mind but its kid ambiance is fierce.

Location
The hotel is located on the Quai Charles de Gaulle, a few miles from the city center (and Vielle Ville).  But its close proximity to Lyon’s largest city park (complete with zoo) and reliable public bus routes make that distance easy to navigate.

Sleeps
Some rooms will sleep up to four with small children but larger families may need to reserve a suite.  Call the reservations desk to find the room that is right for you.

Highlights
A new hotel, the rooms are roomy enough so that your crib or roll-away bed won’t mean there’s no room for your suitcase.  This is a rare find in France so enjoy it!

Good to know
A lot of the best things to see in this area are outside of Lyon.  The picturesque medieval village of Perouges (of Three Musketeers fame) is about 30 minutes away.  To make the most out of your visit, a rental car is probably your best bet.  Make sure to emphasize “automatique” – doing it in a French accent helps, I swear! – several times while arranging the car hire if you are not an experienced stick driver.  Driving with screaming kids is scary enough, you don’t need to add a stall and a roll backwards downhill to it.  Trust me.  I speak from experience.

Contact
http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/LYNHITW-Hilton-Lyon/index.do

September 18th, 2008 | by Kayt Sukel