VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Annecy or Edinburgh?

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 Edinburgh for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Edinburgh’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, Edinburgh 22: Annecy leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Edinburgh 53: Edinburgh leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Edinburgh 50: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Edinburgh 75: Annecy leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Edinburgh 62: Edinburgh leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Edinburgh 74: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Edinburgh 50: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Edinburgh 30: Annecy leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Edinburgh 72: Edinburgh leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Edinburgh 34: Annecy leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Edinburgh.

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.

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyEdinburgh

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.

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

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). Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyEdinburgh
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 m47 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyEdinburgh
City population132,117488,050
People per km²1,9751,884
Museums within 10 km132
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
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 Edinburgh 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.