Annecy or Avignon?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage and sights concentration 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 Annecy if you want a summer base by the water, with lake beaches, park space near the centre and the busier of the two evening scenes, and if 26-27°C in high summer suits you better than real heat.
Choose Avignon if heritage is the point: more museums, more to see on foot, and a longer usable season, with mild 11-13°C winters.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Annecy and Avignon are level on 0.
| Annecy | Avignon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 9 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 260 km | 55 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Annecy leads by 2 points.2
| Annecy | Avignon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 44 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 343 | 336 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 20 | 18 |
Museums & heritage. Avignon leads by 25 points.25
| Annecy | Avignon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 9 | 17 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 5 | 16 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 56 | 94 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 6 |
Nightlife. Annecy leads by 4 points.4
| Annecy | Avignon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 16 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 140 | 115 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 120 | 97 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 86 | 84 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 6 | 4 |
Nature & day trips. Avignon leads by 8 points.8
| Annecy | Avignon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 44 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 20 | 36 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 19 | 31 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 48 hectares | 23 hectares |
Good for families. Avignon leads by 13 points.13
| Annecy | Avignon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 42 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 4 | 15 |
| Park area within 2 km | 48 hectares | 23 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Avignon leads by 17 points.17
| Annecy | Avignon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 40 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 15 | 40 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Annecy and Avignon are level on 62.
| Annecy | Avignon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 62 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Avignon leads by 11 points.11
| Annecy | Avignon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 70 |
| Monthly daytime high | 5.1 °C to 26.8 °C | 11.2 °C to 31.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 55 mm to 94 mm | 34 mm to 111 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 2 |
Where they differ
Annecy has roughly twice as much park space near the centre and 9 beaches nearby against Avignon's 1, though on a lake rather than the sea. Evenings are livelier here, with more places to drink and about twice as many nightclubs.
Avignon has about twice as many museums, tightly grouped around the centre, and about three times as many notable places within walking distance. It has 6 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 2, and 36% of surrounding land protected against 20%.
Where they are alike
Neither city works as a coastal break: neither has a month with sea water at 21°C or more, and swimming is not the reason to pick either.
They are also close on eating and drinking. Annecy has about as many restaurants near the centre as Avignon, with a similar range of kitchens, and in both cities the nightlife is limited, with most of what exists sitting close to the centre.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone travelling for history and museums should take Avignon. It has roughly twice the museums, its notable places sit within walking distance of one another, and 6 UNESCO-listed sites lie within day-trip reach against 2.
Families are better served in Avignon too, with about three times as many attractions near the centre and 4 theme parks within reach against 3, though Annecy offers far more park space for unstructured days.
Anyone who wants water and evenings out should go to Annecy: 9 beaches on the lake against Avignon's single one, and about twice as many nightclubs, though neither city is a late-night place.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison here carries no information: the figure behind it is a national price level, identical for both by construction. The €160 a day quoted beside each is one national estimate, not a measurement of Annecy or Avignon.
Avignon's warmth is not all gain. 31°C at the height of summer is hard work in a tightly grouped centre, and the autumn that follows brings the heaviest rainfall of either city, 111mm. Annecy's beaches are lake beaches, usable only in the warm months, and its rain is spread through the year rather than concentrated in one season.
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. Annecy: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (39 km from centre). Avignon: 1991-2020 normals, Nimes / Courbessac (34 km from centre).
Annecy is at its best in July and August, when highs reach 26-27°C. Rain is fairly constant year-round, close to 77-80mm even in midsummer, and the heaviest falls come in autumn.
Avignon comes good earlier, in May and June, warmer at 24-28°C and drier, down to 44mm. September stays warm but is its wettest month at 111mm, and winter highs of 11-13°C make a short off-season trip workable, where Annecy's winter is markedly colder.
Getting there
| Flying from | Annecy | Avignon |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 10 m €104-203 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 25 m €110-119 MRS · 65 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €91-200 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 45 m no fares FNI · 38 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 25 m €156-181 1 stop GVA · 38 km | 2 h 10 m €136-184 1 stop MRS · 65 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 30 m €160-186 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 50 m no fares MRS · 65 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 55 m €147-338 GVA · 38 km | 2 h 55 m €219-245 1 stop MRS · 65 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 50 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 1 h 35 m no fares MRS · 65 km |
| NantesNTE | 1 h 20 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 1 h 30 m €72-162 MRS · 65 km |
| BordeauxBOD | 1 h 20 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 1 h 15 m no fares MRS · 65 km |
| PortoOPO | 2 h 10 m €127-171 1 stop GVA · 38 km | 2 h 0 m no fares FNI · 38 km |
| MontrealYUL, YHU, YMX | 7 h 35 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 7 h 45 m no fares MRS · 65 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 | Annecy | Avignon |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 418 m | 10 m |
| Main airport | Geneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre140 non-stop destinations | Marseille Provence Airport (MRS)65 km from centre125 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Annecy | Avignon |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 132,117 | 92,188 |
| People per km² | 1,975 | 1,420 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 11 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 6 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 44 | 36 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Annecy or Avignon somewhere new.