VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
Inverness Castle above the River Ness, Inverness
InvernessInverness Castle above the River Ness

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

Annecy or Inverness?

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
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Inverness for

  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Inverness’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, Inverness 20: Annecy leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Inverness 36: Annecy leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Inverness 27: Annecy leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Inverness 28: Inverness leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Inverness 84: Annecy leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Inverness 56: Annecy leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Inverness 55: Annecy leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Inverness 48: Annecy leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Inverness 30: Annecy leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Inverness 38: Inverness leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy and Inverness are level on 33.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Inverness 30: Annecy leads by 18 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Inverness.

Your match

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

Annecy
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Inverness
40match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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

Inverness in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
69 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyInverness

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.

Inverness 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.

Inverness's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Kinloss.

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). Inverness: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Inverness / Dalcross (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyInverness
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 m7 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsInverness Airport (INV)12 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyInverness
City population132,11747,380
People per km²1,9752,289
Museums within 10 km13
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Inverness 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.