VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
A heritage tram before the Regent building, Christchurch
ChristchurchA heritage tram before the Regent building

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Christchurch by Bernard Spragg. NZ, CC0.

Annecy or Christchurch?

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

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • getting around

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

Choose Christchurch for

  • nightlife
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Christchurch’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, Christchurch 38: Annecy leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Christchurch 45: Annecy leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy and Christchurch are level on 38.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Christchurch 32: Christchurch leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Christchurch 84: Annecy leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Christchurch 45: Annecy leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Christchurch 66: Christchurch leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Christchurch 48: Annecy leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Christchurch 32: Annecy leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Christchurch 38: Christchurch leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Christchurch 38: Christchurch leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Christchurch 45: Annecy leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Christchurch.

Your match

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

Annecy
Best match
50match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Christchurch
46match

Wins on nightlife and families 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

Christchurch in July

11 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyChristchurch

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). Christchurch: 1991-2020 normals, Christchurch (8.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyChristchurch
Official languageFrenchEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation418 m20 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsChristchurch International Airport (CHC)10 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyChristchurch
City population132,117383,200
People per km²1,9751,298
Museums within 10 km111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Christchurch 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.