VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Annecy or Chiang Mai?

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
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Chiang Mai’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, Chiang Mai 6: Annecy leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Chiang Mai 65: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Chiang Mai 45: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Chiang Mai 73: Annecy leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Chiang Mai 48: Annecy leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Chiang Mai 55: Annecy leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Chiang Mai 38: Annecy leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 55 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Chiang Mai 30: Annecy leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 34 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Annecy
50match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and wellness 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
15 hdaylight a day

Chiang Mai in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyChiang Mai

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). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyChiang Mai
Official languageFrenchThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation418 m310 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyChiang Mai
City population132,1171,198,000
People per km²1,9752,958
Museums within 10 km16
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Annecy or Chiang Mai 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. 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.