🇵🇹 Cross-border drive · Portugal → France 🇫🇷
Driving from Lisbon to Lyon
- Drive time
- 18h 1m
- Distance
- 1,702 km
- Same day?
- Split it
- 12 h+, plan a stop
- Fuel cost
- ≈ €261
- petrol · diesel ≈ €218
- Tolls
- ≈ €160
- per-km
- EV charging
- Plenty fast
- 17 of 79 ≥50 kW
On this page
Route map
Route options
Other paths OSRM found between the two cities — handy when traffic, tolls, or scenery matter more than raw speed.
Avoids motorways
+10h 10m- Distance:
- 1,779 km (+77 km)
- Duration:
- 28h 11m
Via: N-122 · N-620 · N 88 · CL-602
How else can you make this trip?
Driving is the focus of this guide; here's how cycling, coach, and (soon) train and plane stack up for the same pair.
18h 1m
1.702 km · €261 fuel
See details ↓
Not realistic
1.702 km is far beyond a typical multi-day cycle tour. Try a shorter pair like a day or weekend stage.
No direct service
Our coach data (FlixBus + BlaBlaCar) doesn't list a direct service for this pair. National operators (e.g., National Express in the UK, Eurolines feeders) may still cover it — check their site directly.
22h 45m
SNCF VOYAGEURS · Renfe Cercanias
See details ↓
Trip plan
How to think about the drive: one day, split, or overnight.
Overnight recommended
Too long for a single-driver day. Plan on 2 overnight stop(s) to do this trip right.
A natural overnight stop near the halfway point: Deba (es).
- Distance:
- 1,702 km
- Duration:
- 18h 1m (free-flow, no traffic)
Where to stop
Places along the route that make natural breaks for coffee, lunch, or a night.
-
Castelo Branco 🇵🇹 pt
≈213 km≈ 12.5 km detour from the main route
-
Venta de Baños 🇪🇸 es
≈638 km≈ 18.2 km detour from the main route
-
Arrasate / Mondragón 🇪🇸 es
≈851 km≈ 1.4 km detour from the main route
-
Mimizan 🇫🇷 fr
≈1,064 km≈ 31.5 km detour from the main route
-
Coulounieix-Chamiers 🇫🇷 fr
≈1,276 km≈ 2.2 km detour from the main route
-
Chamalières 🇫🇷 fr
≈1,489 km≈ 33.4 km detour from the main route
Key moves
Things to know before you set off — borders, sides of the road, tolls.
Multi-country chain · PT → ES → FR
You'll cross 3 countries on this drive — each with its own toll system, fuel pricing, and motorway rules. Skim the must-know section below before you set off, and have your registration plus insurance card in the door pocket for any roadside check.
Tolls on motorways in PT / ES / FR
Budget for motorway tolls — France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal charge per-km, Croatia and Greece by section. Contactless cards work almost everywhere; have one loaded.
Long rural stretch on N 89
Plan for about 18 km of two-lane country roads. Slower than motorway, but often the pretty part — fewer overtakes after dark.
Must-know before you go
The things a driver from another country wouldn't think to ask about — fines, stickers, payment cards, opening hours.
City access & emission zones
Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla now run ZBE low-emission zones
Must knowSpain's Zonas de Bajas Emisiones (ZBE) cover central Madrid (24/7), Barcelona inside the Rondes (weekdays 7:00–20:00), Sevilla, Valencia and a growing list. Foreign plates need to register at the city portal in advance — your Euro emission class determines whether you get in. Without registration, cameras log entry and the fine reaches your home address.
Order your Crit'Air sticker before the trip
Must knowParis, Lyon, Strasbourg, Marseille, Toulouse and a growing list of cities require a Crit'Air air-quality sticker visible on your windscreen — even for a single drive-through. It's €4.51 from the official site and ships by post (allow 2–6 weeks abroad). Without it, expect on-the-spot fines from €68. Your registration document tells the issuer your emission class.
ZER Avenida-Baixa-Chiado — pre-2000 petrol, pre-2005 diesel banned
Must knowLisbon
Lisbon's Zona de Emissões Reduzidas covers the central historic axis (Avenida da Liberdade, Baixa, Chiado). Hours 07:00–21:00 weekdays. Pre-2000 petrol cars and pre-2005 diesels are banned 24/7. Foreign plates: register at the Câmara Municipal portal. Park at one of the EMEL underground garages and walk.
Lyon ZFE — Crit'Air 4 banned year-round, 3 banned in winter
Must knowLyon
Lyon's low-emission zone is stricter than Paris in some respects: Crit'Air 4 vehicles are banned 24/7, and from 2026 Crit'Air 3 (most pre-2011 diesels) joins the year-round ban. Sticker required, even for transit. Foreign plates: order via the official Crit'Air site at least 6 weeks ahead.
Tolls, vignettes & road payment
A22 Algarve and ex-SCUT roads — electronic only
Must knowPortugal has two toll systems. Most autoestradas use a normal ticket-and-pay barrier. But the A22 (Algarve), A23, A24, A25 and A28 are "ex-SCUT" routes with no booths — only overhead gantries that read your plate. Without a Via Verde transponder or pre-registration, you have 5 days to pay at a CTT post office, or the fine reaches your home address. Easiest fix: rent a Via Verde Visitors transponder (€6/week) at the airport or border.
Contactless works at every autoroute booth
UsefulFrench autoroutes use a ticket system: take a card on entry, pay on exit. Every barrier accepts contactless tap-to-pay — pull into the "CB / bank card" lane (orange "t" logo means Liber-T transponder only, avoid those). For frequent EU travellers a Bip&Go transponder pays itself off in two trips by skipping the queue.
Most Spanish tolls were abolished in 2024
TipThe AP-1, AP-7 (Bilbao stretch) and most of the Mediterranean coast highways are now toll-free. A handful remain: AP-9 (Galicia), AP-66 (León–Asturias), Catalonia's C-32/C-16 tunnel approach. Spain is no longer a high-toll country for cars — your fuel + a few specific bridge fees is the realistic budget.
What your car must carry
Hi-vis vest in the cabin, triangle in the boot
Must knowA reflective vest must be reachable without leaving the vehicle (in the door pocket or under your seat — boot is too late). One warning triangle is also mandatory. The 2012 breathalyzer rule was scrapped in 2020 but is still nice to keep. No spare-bulb requirement.
Driving rules & habits
Priorité à droite still applies in towns
UsefulOn urban streets without signs, traffic from your right has priority — even from a side street that looks subordinate. Outside cities the rule is mostly retired, but in residential French villages it survives. Slow at every right-hand junction unless a yellow diamond on your road tells you you're on the priority road.
Plan your stops, not just your finish time
UsefulOSRM gives you free-flow drive time. Realistic add: 10% on motorway-heavy routes, 25% if you're crossing two cities. Eat at off-peak hours (11:30 lunch, 18:00 dinner) — service-area queues at noon kill 20 minutes. EU fatigue research is consistent: 15-minute break every 2 hours, full 45-minute break before 6 hours. The drive between hours 7 and 9 is where avoidable accidents cluster.
The Fourvière tunnel is the bottleneck
TipLyon
A6/A7 traffic through Lyon converges into the Tunnel de Fourvière — 1.8 km, two lanes each direction, no overtaking. Friday afternoon and Sunday evening it backs up onto the motorway by 30+ minutes. The "TEO" (Tronçon Est de l'Ouest) ring road skips it for €2.50 — worth taking if you're bypassing the city.
Fuel stations
Off-motorway stations close late evening
TipSpanish provincial fuel stations often close 22:00–07:00, especially in the south. Motorway services (Cepsa, Repsol on the autovía) run 24/7. If you're routing through an Andalusian backroad, fuel before sunset and don't bank on a small-town pump.
Contactless cards work at virtually every motorway pump
TipMajor brand stations (Shell, Total, BP, Repsol, Cepsa, OMV, Eni, Esso) take Visa and Mastercard contactless without an issue. American Express and Diners are spotty south of the Alps. A €100 pre-authorisation hold is normal — it releases within 5 days. Carry €50 cash for the rare independent station.
Smaller stations close on Sundays
TipMotorway service areas (aires) run 24/7 with a fuel-price premium of about €0.15/L. Off-motorway stations in towns under 20k people often close Sunday afternoons and overnight Mon–Sat. If you're fuelling on a Sunday route, plan around motorway stops — supermarket pumps (Carrefour, E.Leclerc) are your cheapest option but typically 9:00–12:30 / 14:30–19:00 on a Sunday, where open at all.
Rules, fees, and thresholds change. Always verify against the official source the day before you drive — this page is a checklist, not a legal reference.
Main roads
The highways this route spends the most kilometres on.
-
A 89 La Transeuropéenne470 km
-
A-62 Autovía de Castilla348 km
-
A 23; IP 6 Autoestrada da Beira Interior213 km
-
A 63 Autoroute de la Côte Basque205 km
-
AP-1 Autopista del Norte126 km
-
A 1 Autoestrada do Norte94 km
-
AP-1; AP-8 Kantauriko autobidea65 km
-
A 25; IP 5 Autoestrada das Beiras Litoral e Alta35 km
-
A-1 Autovía del Norte30 km
-
A 71; A 89 L'Arverne19 km
-
N 89 —18 km
-
A 630 Rocade Extérieure17 km
Route character
How much of the drive is motorway vs. secondary vs. rural.
Motorway drive — fast, predictable, uneventful.
- Motorway
- 97%
- Secondary
- 1%
- Other / rural
- 2%
Drive difficulty
At-a-glance feel: how demanding is this drive for one driver?
Overall
Demanding
Tough drive — multiple complicating factors compound fatigue. Strongly recommend splitting across days.
- Long drive: 18h 1m behind the wheel at free-flow speeds.
- Cross-border: pt → fr. Keep documents accessible and check border rules.
Elevation profile
Highs, lows, and the total climb / descent along the route.
- Lowest point
- 32 m
- Highest point
- 922 m
- Total ascent
- ↑ 2,176 m
- Total descent
- ↓ 2,064 m
Fuel & tolls
Rough cost expectation for a typical EU passenger car. Treat as an estimate — pump prices change weekly.
Petrol (RON 95)
≈ €261
127.6 L × €2.04 / L · 7.5 L/100 km
Diesel
≈ €218
102.1 L × €2.13 / L · 6 L/100 km
Electric (DC fast)
≈ €165
298 kWh × €0.56 / kWh · 17.5 kWh/100 km
Public DC fast charging — slower AC charging at home or hotels typically costs about half.
Motorway tolls & vignettes
≈ €160
- PT — €0.09/km on the motorway network (≈ 406 km in-country ≈ €37)
- ES — €0.09/km on the motorway network (≈ 584 km in-country ≈ €53) Toll-free on the A-network; charged only on AP roads.
- FR — €0.10/km on the motorway network (≈ 711 km in-country ≈ €71)
Prices last refreshed 2026-10-12.
Fuel and EV charging along the route
Stations within a few kilometres of the road, sampled at evenly-spaced waypoints.
EV charging
17 at 50 kW or above (fast / ultra-fast).
Fastest first
- Cepsa Pedrosillo el Ralo 300 kW
- Atlante - Bayonne - Centre Commercial Ametzondo — Bayonne 300 kW
- Electra - Saint-Pierre-d'Irube - CC Ametzondo Shopping — Saint-Pierre-d'Irube 300 kW
- TotalEnergies - Relais des Palombières — Gours 300 kW
- Atlante - A89 - Aire de service du Chavanon (accessible dans les 2 sens) — Merlines 300 kW
- TotalEnergies - Relais Garibaldi — Lyon 300 kW
- Tesla Supercharger Bayonne — Bayonne 250 kW
- Tesla Supercharger Saint-Pierre-d'Irube — Saint-Pierre-d'Irube 250 kW
- REPSOL Quintapanalla Dir. Vitoria 180 kW
- Freshmile - Bayonne — Bayonne 180 kW
- Allego - Burger King Bayonne Saint-Léon — Bayonne 150 kW
- Carrefour Energies - Lyon Part-Dieu — Lyon 150 kW
Weather by month
Average daytime high / overnight low and typical monthly rainfall, over the past five years.
🇵🇹 Lisbon
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
16°
10°
|
17°
10°
|
17°
11°
|
22°
13°
|
23°
14°
|
27°
17°
|
29°
18°
|
30°
19°
|
26°
17°
|
24°
17°
|
19°
13°
|
15°
10°
|
| 113mm | 68mm | 98mm | 52mm | 20mm | 25mm | 6mm | 0mm | 29mm | 96mm | 110mm | 61mm |
hot mild cold
🇫🇷 Lyon
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
8°
1°
|
10°
2°
|
14°
5°
|
16°
7°
|
21°
11°
|
27°
16°
|
28°
17°
|
29°
17°
|
23°
13°
|
18°
11°
|
11°
5°
|
8°
2°
|
| 65mm | 44mm | 110mm | 86mm | 99mm | 93mm | 87mm | 45mm | 131mm | 118mm | 88mm | 76mm |
hot mild cold
Directions
Turn-by-turn summary of the main manoeuvres, generated by OSRM.
Show all 50 manoeuvres
- Praça Marquês de Pombal (Rotunda)
- Avenida Marechal Craveiro Lopes/2ª Circular 2 km
- Avenida Marechal Craveiro Lopes/2ª Circular 3 km
- Autoestrada do Norte (A 1) 94 km
- Autoestrada da Beira Interior (A 23; IP 6) 213 km
- Autoestrada da Beira Interior (A 23) 1 km
- Autoestrada das Beiras Litoral e Alta (A 25; IP 5) 35 km
- (A-62) 116 km
- Autovía de Castilla (A-62) 86 km
- Autovía del Noroeste (A-6) 2 km
- Autovía de Castilla (A-62) 64 km
- Autovía de Castilla (A-62) 75 km
- Autovía de Castilla (A-62) 7 km
- Circunvalación de Burgos (BU-30) 4 km
- Autovía del Norte (A-1) 7 km
- Autopista del Norte (AP-1) 83 km
- (A-1) 14 km
- (A-1) 9 km
- — 0.3 km
- — 0.4 km
- — 0.3 km
- (N-622) 0.9 km
- — 1 km
- — 0.4 km
- (AP-1) 43 km
- Iparraldeko autobidea (AP-1) 1.0 km
- Kantauriko autobidea (AP-1; AP-8) 42 km
- Kantauriko autobidea (AP-1; AP-8) 8 km
- AP-1 / AP-8 (AP-1; AP-8) 2 km
- Bizkaiko Golkoko Autobidea (AP-1; AP-8) 3 km
- Bizkaiko Golkoko Autobidea (AP-1; AP-8) 3 km
- Bizkaiko Golkoko Autobidea (AP-1; AP-8) 0.2 km
- AP-1 / AP-8 (AP-1; AP-8) 7 km
- Autoroute de la Côte Basque (A 63) 31 km
- Autoroute des Landes (A 63) 174 km
- — 0.7 km
- Rocade Extérieure (A 630) 17 km
- —
- (N 89) 18 km
- La Transeuropéenne (A 89) 167 km
- La Transeuropéenne 0.3 km
- L'Occitane (A 20) 16 km
- (A 89) 160 km
- — 0.5 km
- L'Arverne (A 71; A 89) 19 km
- (A 89) 83 km
- La Transeuropéenne (A 89) 59 km
- — 0.7 km
- Autoroute du Soleil (A 6) 12 km
- —
By train from Lisbon to Lyon
Fastest cross-border rail itinerary from the public Transitous planner. Times reflect a typical Monday-morning departure on the next available service-day.
- Fastest journey
- 22h 45m
- 5 changes
- Lead operator
- SNCF VOYAGEURS
- + 2 more
- Alternatives
- 5
- Itineraries returned by the planner.
Trains on the fastest itinerary
- TGV INOUI 8422
- TGV INOUI 6607
All operators across alternatives
- SNCF VOYAGEURS
- Renfe Cercanias
- RENFE OPERADORA
Includes a high-speed rail leg (TGV, ICE, AVE, Frecciarossa-class).
Show route on map
Routing via the public Transitous OTP planner (community-run MOTIS instance). Cached 24 hours; verify on the operator's site before booking.
How this page is built
Compiled by COD Solutions Oy from open European data — OSRM over OpenStreetMap for the route geometry, Open-Meteo for monthly climate normals, OpenTopoData SRTM 30m for elevation, EU Weekly Oil Bulletin for cross-border fuel-price bands, and Open Charge Map for EV charging stations. See our methodology for refresh cadence and limitations.