VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Annecy or Ghent?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Ghent for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Ghent’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, Ghent 25: Annecy leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Ghent 62: Ghent leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Ghent 72: Ghent leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Ghent 55: Ghent leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Ghent 35: Annecy leads by 57 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Ghent 88: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Ghent 50: Annecy leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Ghent 78: Ghent leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Ghent 50: Ghent leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Ghent 38: Ghent leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Ghent 60: Ghent leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Ghent 33: Annecy leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Ghent.

Your match

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

Annecy
50match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife 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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyGhent

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.

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

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). Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyGhent
Official languageFrenchFrench, German, Dutch
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation418 m12 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyGhent
City population132,117272,657
People per km²1,9751,728
Museums within 10 km130
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
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 Ghent 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.