Annecy or La Spezia?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on sights concentration and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips 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 La Spezia if swimming shapes the trip: 32 beaches within reach and a sea that stays warm from June into September, with the warmer and drier high summer of the two.
Choose Annecy if you would rather walk: far more to see within reach of the centre on foot, a wider range of kitchens to eat through, and more protected land around the city for days out.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. La Spezia leads by 73 points.73
| Annecy | La Spezia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 73 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 9 | 32 |
| Coast distance | 260 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | — | 0 km |
Places to eat. Annecy leads by 15 points.15
| Annecy | La Spezia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 31 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 343 | 235 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 20 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. La Spezia leads by 12 points.12
| Annecy | La Spezia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 42 |
| Museums within 10 km | 9 | 15 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 5 | 10 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 56 | 67 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
Nightlife. La Spezia leads by 4 points.4
| Annecy | La Spezia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 24 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 140 | 208 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 120 | 176 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 86 | 85 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 6 | 1 |
Nature & day trips. La Spezia leads by 16 points.16
| Annecy | La Spezia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 52 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 20 | 13 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 19 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 51 |
| Park area within 2 km | 48 hectares | 23 hectares |
Good for families. Annecy leads by 9 points.9
| Annecy | La Spezia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 20 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 4 | 3 |
| Park area within 2 km | 48 hectares | 23 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Annecy leads by 16 points.16
| Annecy | La Spezia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 7 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 15 | 6 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. La Spezia leads by 6 points.6
| Annecy | La Spezia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 68 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €155 |
Year-round weather. La Spezia leads by 11 points.11
| Annecy | La Spezia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 70 |
| Monthly daytime high | 5.1 °C to 26.8 °C | 11.4 °C to 30.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 55 mm to 94 mm | 32 mm to 132 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 2 |
Where they differ
Annecy has about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, somewhat more restaurants near it, and a much wider range of kitchens. The land around it is 20% protected against 13% around La Spezia, with roughly twice as much park space close in.
La Spezia has 32 beaches nearby against Annecy's 9, and a sea that reaches 25°C in August, where Annecy offers no sea swimming at all. Its museums are about twice as numerous as Annecy's and sit tightly around the centre.
Where they are alike
Neither is a late-night destination. La Spezia has somewhat more places to drink, Annecy many times as many nightclubs, and in both the venues sit close to the centre, so an evening out is walkable rather than a logistical exercise.
Both are modest for families, though Annecy has somewhat more attractions near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach against 2. The national daily budget estimates behind them are close as well, €160 in France and €155 in Italy.
Which traveller are you?
Swimmers should take La Spezia. It has 32 beaches nearby against Annecy's 9, and the sea reaches 25°C in August, while Annecy offers no warm-sea months at all.
Anyone who travels on foot, for sights and for dinner, is better off in Annecy: about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, more restaurants near it, and a much wider spread of kitchens.
Families lean to Annecy too, with more attractions and more park space near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach against 2, though neither city is strong on this and both stay small-scale.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €160 and €155, are national price levels for France and Italy, not measurements of Annecy or La Spezia. A gap that small tells you nothing about which city costs more; either can sit well above or below its own country's average, especially a heavily visited one.
La Spezia's beach count is of beaches nearby rather than in the city, so swimming usually means a journey out, and the months with the warmest sea are also the hottest, at 30°C, and the busiest. Its dry high summer has no equivalent in autumn, when rainfall runs heavier than Annecy's.
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). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).
Annecy is at its best from June to August, when highs run 24-27°C and rain sits at 77-81mm a month. It is not a dry summer, and autumn is wetter still, up to 94mm in October.
La Spezia's window is longer, May to September, and its high summer is genuinely dry at 32-35mm with the sea at 24-25°C. Autumn reverses that completely, at 125-132mm a month, heavier than anything Annecy records.
Getting there
| Flying from | Annecy | La Spezia |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €91-200 GVA · 38 km | 2 h 5 m €48-62 PSA · 65 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 10 m €104-203 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 40 m no fares PSA · 65 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 30 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 1 h 10 m no fares GOA · 86 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 55 m no fares TRN · 142 km | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 65 km |
| BrusselsBRU, CRL | 1 h 20 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 1 h 45 m no fares PSA · 65 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 30 m €160-186 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 55 m €210-262 1 stop PSA · 65 km |
| PortoOPO | 2 h 10 m €127-171 1 stop GVA · 38 km | 2 h 30 m no fares PSA · 65 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 45 m no fares TRN · 142 km | 1 h 25 m no fares PSA · 65 km |
| ManchesterMAN | 1 h 50 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 2 h 20 m no fares PSA · 65 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 5 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 3 h 10 m no fares PSA · 65 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 | La Spezia |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | Italian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CFL230 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 | 3 m |
| Main airport | Geneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre140 non-stop destinations | Pisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre81 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Annecy | La Spezia |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 132,117 | 92,119 |
| People per km² | 1,975 | 1,792 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 12 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 44 | 22 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Annecy or La Spezia somewhere new.