VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
White sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Shores
Gulf ShoresWhite sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Gulf Shores by ourgulfshoresvacation.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Annecy or Gulf Shores?

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

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Gulf Shores for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Gulf Shores’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, Gulf Shores 84: Gulf Shores leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Gulf Shores 38: Annecy leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Gulf Shores 12: Annecy leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Gulf Shores 32: Gulf Shores leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Gulf Shores 52: Annecy leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Gulf Shores 52: Annecy leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Gulf Shores 75: Gulf Shores leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Gulf Shores 15: Annecy leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Gulf Shores 22: Annecy leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Gulf Shores 42: Gulf Shores leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Gulf Shores 27: Annecy leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Gulf Shores 28: Annecy leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Gulf Shores.

Your match

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

Annecy
Best match
50match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Gulf Shores
40match

Wins on beaches 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

Gulf Shores in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
165 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyGulf Shores

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.

Gulf Shores 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.

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). Gulf Shores: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyGulf Shores
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation418 m2 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)54 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyGulf Shores
City population132,11715,014
People per km²1,975207
Museums within 10 km11
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Annecy or Gulf Shores 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.