VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Annecy or Cologne?

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

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

Choose Cologne for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Cologne’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, Cologne 14: Annecy leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Cologne 52: Cologne leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Cologne 67: Cologne leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Cologne 66: Cologne leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Cologne 56: Annecy leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Cologne 80: Cologne leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Cologne 70: Cologne leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Cologne 74: Cologne leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Cologne 57: Cologne leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Cologne 46: Cologne leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Cologne 68: Cologne leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Cologne 50: Cologne leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Cologne.

Your match

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

Annecy
50match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

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
15 hdaylight a day

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyCologne

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). Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyCologne
Official languageFrenchGerman
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 m59 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyCologne
City population132,1171,025,523
People per km²1,9752,532
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23

Where else could you go?

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