VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Annecy or Bilbao?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Annecy for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Annecy’s own page.

Choose Bilbao for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Bilbao’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Annecy 55, Bilbao 45: Annecy leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Bilbao 81: Bilbao leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Bilbao 62: Bilbao leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Bilbao 54: Bilbao leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Bilbao 75: Annecy leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Bilbao 78: Bilbao leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Bilbao 55: Annecy leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Bilbao 79: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Bilbao 47: Bilbao leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Bilbao 44: Bilbao leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Bilbao 53: Bilbao leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Bilbao 33: Annecy leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Bilbao.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Annecy
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Annecy in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Bilbao in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
54 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyBilbao

Where the figures come from

Annecy has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Annecy's sunshine is measured 39 km from the centre, at Geneve-Cointrin.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Annecy: 2007-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Annecy / Metz-Tessy (4.4 km from centre). Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyBilbao
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation418 m19 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyBilbao
City population132,117351,124
People per km²1,9758,440
Museums within 10 km117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Annecy or Bilbao somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.