VacationSelector

Annecy or Geneva?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Annecy
34
match

Wins on value for money with your weighting.

Geneva
✓ Best match
50
match

Wins on good for families and sights concentration with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

The verdict

Choose Annecy if you want the smaller of the two, a compact place where the draw is the surroundings rather than the streets, with 3 theme parks within reach for a family trip and no appetite for nightlife.

Choose Geneva if you want more within walking distance: more museums, a wider range of restaurants, more park space and far more to do after dark.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

AnnecyGeneva
Beaches & swimming. Annecy and Geneva are level on 0.
AnnecyGeneva
Score00
Swim season months00
Beaches 10 km943
Coast distance260 km279 km
Water distance——
Places to eat. Geneva leads by 24 points.24
AnnecyGeneva
Score4670
Restaurants within 2 km of centre3431,028
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km2035
Museums & heritage. Geneva leads by 22 points.22
AnnecyGeneva
Score3052
Museums within 10 km935
Museums within 2 km of centre520
Share of museums within 2 km %5657
Unesco sites within 50 km22
Nightlife. Geneva leads by 30 points.30
AnnecyGeneva
Score2050
Drinking venues within 4 km140549
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre120427
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %8678
Nightclubs within 4 km660
Nature & day trips. Geneva leads by 23 points.23
AnnecyGeneva
Score3659
Protected land share 50 km %2027
Landscape blanket share 50 km %1921
Land share of disc %100100
Park area within 2 km48 hectares182 hectares
Good for families. Geneva leads by 36 points.36
AnnecyGeneva
Score2965
Tourist attractions within 2 km428
Park area within 2 km48 hectares182 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km32
Sights concentration. Geneva leads by 33 points.33
AnnecyGeneva
Score2356
Notable places within 2 km1599
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Annecy leads by 27 points.27
AnnecyGeneva
Score6235
Price level global73.7110.5
Daily budget€160€248
Year-round weather. Annecy and Geneva are level on 59.
AnnecyGeneva
Score5959
Monthly daytime high5.1 °C to 26.8 °C5.1 °C to 26.8 °C
Monthly rainfall55 mm to 94 mm55 mm to 94 mm
Dry months00
0255075100

Where they differ

Annecy is the quieter proposition: far fewer notable places within walking distance of the centre, and fewer bars and clubs, so evenings stay low-key. It has 3 theme parks within reach against Geneva's 2. France's national daily estimate is €160 against Switzerland's €248.

Geneva packs far more into its centre: many times as many notable places on foot, many more attractions for children, much more park space, and about three times as many restaurants and drinking places, with a wider range of kitchens.

Where they are alike

The two share a climate: daytime highs run about 5-27°C over the year, and no month is dry, with rain between 55mm and 94mm. The same months work and the same months don't, so weather will not decide between them.

Beaches exist near both, but neither has a month of water at 21°C or more, so swimming is a warm-season affair rather than a reason to travel. Both sit within day-trip reach of 2 UNESCO-listed places.

Which traveller are you?

Travelling with children: Geneva, for the number of attractions and the park space near the centre, all reachable on foot. Annecy answers only if the trip is built around theme parks, 3 within reach against Geneva's 2.

Eating and going out: Geneva, with about three times as many restaurants and a much wider range of kitchens, plus most of its bars and clubs close to the centre. Annecy's evening choice is narrower.

Walkers and quiet weeks: Annecy, if a small centre and low-key evenings are the point. For protected countryside, Geneva sits beside more of it, 27% of the surrounding land against 20%.

What the numbers don't tell you

The daily budget figures are national estimates, €160 for France and €248 for Switzerland, price levels for restaurants and hotels across each country rather than measurements of Annecy or Geneva. A heavily visited city can sit well away from its national average, so treat the gap as background, not as what your week will cost.

Beach counts mislead too: Geneva has more of them nearby, but neither city has a month of water at 21°C or more. Nor is the warm season a dry one: no month in either place falls to 40mm or less, so a good month for temperature is not automatically a good one for rain.

When should you go?

The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Annecy
5
7
12
16
20
24
27
26
21
16
9
6
Geneva
5
7
12
16
20
24
27
26
21
16
9
6
Rainfall, mm
Annecy
71
55
61
66
77
81
77
80
87
94
87
88
Geneva
71
55
61
66
77
81
77
80
87
94
87
88
Daylight, hours per day
Annecy
9
10
12
14
15
16
15
14
13
11
10
9
Geneva
9
10
12
14
15
16
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Annecy
2
3
6
6
7
8
9
8
6
4
2
2
Geneva
2
3
6
6
7
8
9
8
6
4
2
2

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Annecy: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (39 km from centre). Geneva: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (5.7 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Annecy's window is June to August, when highs run 24-27°C; summer rain still lands near 80mm a month, so it is warm rather than dry. October is the wettest at 94mm and the outdoor case weakens through autumn.

Geneva's temperature and rainfall run identically month for month, so the calendar does not separate them. It suits the cooler, wetter half of the year: February is driest at 55mm, January coolest at 5°C, and its museums, restaurants and bars make an indoor week workable.

Getting there

Flying fromAnnecyGeneva
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
1 h 35 m
€91-200
GVA · 38 km
1 h 35 m
€91-200
GVA · 5 km
PortoOPO
2 h 10 m
€127-171
1 stop
GVA · 38 km
2 h 10 m
€127-171
1 stop
GVA · 5 km
LisbonLIS
2 h 25 m
€156-181
1 stop
GVA · 38 km
2 h 25 m
€156-181
1 stop
GVA · 5 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 10 m
€104-203
GVA · 38 km
1 h 10 m
€104-203
GVA · 5 km
AmsterdamAMS
1 h 30 m
€160-186
GVA · 38 km
1 h 30 m
€160-186
GVA · 5 km
MadridMAD
1 h 50 m
no fares
GVA · 38 km
1 h 50 m
no fares
GVA · 5 km
BarcelonaBCN
1 h 25 m
€65-78
GVA · 38 km
1 h 25 m
€65-78
GVA · 5 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
6 h 25 m
€318-351
1 stop
GVA · 38 km
6 h 25 m
€318-351
1 stop
GVA · 5 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
8 h 0 m
no fares
GVA · 38 km
8 h 0 m
no fares
GVA · 5 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
10 h 20 m
no fares
GVA · 38 km
10 h 20 m
no fares
GVA · 5 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyGeneva
Official languageFrenchFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation418 m403 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre140 non-stop destinationsGeneva International Airport (GVA)5 km from centre140 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyGeneva
City population132,117209,061
People per km²1,97513,148
Museums within 10 km135
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Distinct cuisines in the centre4480

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.