Annecy or Heidelberg?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and museums & heritage 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 a summer trip built around water and open space: roughly twice as much park space near the centre, 3 theme parks within reach against 1, and July highs of 27°C.
Choose Heidelberg if you want museums and heritage, a centre with about twice as many notable places within walking distance, and protected countryside covering more than half the surrounding land.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Annecy and Heidelberg are level on 0.
| Annecy | Heidelberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 9 | 6 |
| Coast distance | 260 km | 406 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Heidelberg leads by 1 points.1
| Annecy | Heidelberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 47 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 343 | 269 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 20 | 26 |
Museums & heritage. Heidelberg leads by 29 points.29
| Annecy | Heidelberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 59 |
| Museums within 10 km | 9 | 54 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 5 | 23 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 56 | 43 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
Nightlife. Heidelberg leads by 7 points.7
| Annecy | Heidelberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 27 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 140 | 201 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 120 | 169 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 86 | 84 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 6 | 8 |
Nature & day trips. Heidelberg leads by 38 points.38
| Annecy | Heidelberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 74 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 20 | 52 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 19 | 22 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 48 hectares | 20 hectares |
Good for families. Heidelberg leads by 14 points.14
| Annecy | Heidelberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 43 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 4 | 29 |
| Park area within 2 km | 48 hectares | 20 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Heidelberg leads by 13 points.13
| Annecy | Heidelberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 36 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 15 | 31 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Annecy leads by 2 points.2
| Annecy | Heidelberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 60 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 75.9 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €163 |
Year-round weather. Heidelberg leads by 2 points.2
| Annecy | Heidelberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 61 |
| Monthly daytime high | 5.1 °C to 26.8 °C | 5.2 °C to 25.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 55 mm to 94 mm | 45 mm to 80 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Annecy's edge is outdoor and close to hand: about twice as much park space near the centre as Heidelberg, and 3 theme parks within reach against Heidelberg's 1, which matters if you are travelling with children who want space rather than exhibits.
Heidelberg is the stronger base for getting out of town: 52% of the surrounding land is protected against 20% around Annecy. It also has many times as many museums, 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 2, and many times as many tourist attractions near its centre.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. Both have beaches within reach, 9 near Annecy and 6 near Heidelberg, but neither has a month of sea warm enough for swimming, so water is incidental here.
They are also close on eating out, weather and price level: Annecy has somewhat more restaurants near the centre, Heidelberg a wider range of kitchens, both run daytime highs of 5-27°C across the year, and the national daily budgets, €160 and €163, are effectively the same.
Which traveller are you?
Museum-minded travellers should take Heidelberg. It has many times as many museums as Annecy, more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, so a short stay covers more.
Families with young children lean towards Annecy: about twice as much park space near the centre, and 3 theme parks within reach against 1. Families wanting attractions and indoor options are better served in Heidelberg.
Walkers and day-trippers should choose Heidelberg, where 52% of the surrounding land is protected against 20% around Annecy. Annecy answers back in summer with 9 beaches nearby, though neither offers a warm-sea swim.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €160 and €163, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of Annecy or Heidelberg. A gap that small says nothing about which city costs more; either can sit well above or below its own country's average, by more than the difference between the two.
Warm months are not dry months here. Neither city has a month at 40mm of rain or less, and Annecy's heaviest rain lands in autumn. The beaches counted nearby are not backed by a warm sea: neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so a beach total is not a swimming season.
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.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Annecy: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (39 km from centre). Heidelberg: 1991-2020 normals, Heidelberg (4.5 km from centre).
Annecy peaks in July, its warmest month at 27°C, and June to August is its most settled stretch. Autumn is where it loses ground: October is its wettest month at 94mm, and the wet run holds into winter.
Heidelberg is the better pick either side of summer. April is drier there, 45mm against 66mm, and September 56mm against 87mm, with highs near 21°C. Midsummer is close to level in both, warm and neither dry.
Getting there
| Flying from | Annecy | Heidelberg |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €91-200 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 25 m €74-124 FRA · 69 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 55 m €147-338 GVA · 38 km | 2 h 50 m €135-301 FRA · 69 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 25 m €156-181 1 stop GVA · 38 km | 2 h 50 m €226-277 1 stop FRA · 69 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 10 m €104-203 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 10 m €139-148 FRA · 69 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 50 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 2 h 20 m €145-238 1 stop FRA · 69 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 30 m €160-186 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 5 m €221-263 1 stop FRA · 69 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 25 m €65-78 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 55 m €102-123 FRA · 69 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 0 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 7 h 55 m €537-713 FRA · 69 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 25 m €318-351 1 stop GVA · 38 km | 6 h 20 m €296-339 1 stop FRA · 69 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 10 h 20 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 9 h 50 m €683-756 FRA · 69 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
| Measure | Annecy | Heidelberg |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | German |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 418 m | 114 m |
| Main airport | Geneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre140 non-stop destinations | Frankfurt Main Airport (FRA)69 km from centre293 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Annecy | Heidelberg |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 132,117 | 162,960 |
| People per km² | 1,975 | 1,496 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 17 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 44 | 45 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Annecy or Heidelberg somewhere new.