VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License.

Annecy or Laguna Beach?

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
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Laguna Beach for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Laguna Beach’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, Laguna Beach 72: Laguna Beach leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Laguna Beach 40: Annecy leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Laguna Beach 27: Annecy leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Laguna Beach 18: Annecy leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Laguna Beach 73: Annecy leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Laguna Beach 72: Laguna Beach leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Laguna Beach 68: Laguna Beach leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Laguna Beach 33: Annecy leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Laguna Beach 46: Laguna Beach leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Laguna Beach 12: Annecy leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Laguna Beach 40: Laguna Beach leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Laguna Beach 47: Annecy leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Laguna Beach.

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 prices with your weighting.

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and shopping 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

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyLaguna Beach

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.

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). Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyLaguna Beach
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation418 m6 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyLaguna Beach
City population132,11723,032
People per km²1,975907
Museums within 10 km12
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 Laguna Beach 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.