VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Annecy or Cardiff?

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

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Cardiff for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Cardiff’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, Cardiff 30: Annecy leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Cardiff 45: Annecy leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Cardiff 58: Cardiff leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Cardiff 70: Annecy leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Cardiff 72: Cardiff leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Cardiff 58: Annecy leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Cardiff 66: Cardiff leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Cardiff 46: Cardiff leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Cardiff 57: Cardiff leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Cardiff 27: Annecy leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Cardiff.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Annecy
50match

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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

Cardiff in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyCardiff

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.

Cardiff 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.

Cardiff's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

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). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyCardiff
Official languageFrenchEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation418 m41 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyCardiff
City population132,117383,536
People per km²1,9752,734
Museums within 10 km19
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Annecy or Cardiff 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.