Annecy or Marseille?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
Wins on beaches & swimming and sights concentration 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 smaller place with more parkland, protected countryside on the doorstep and quiet evenings, where the day trips matter more than the nightlife.
Choose Marseille if you want to swim and eat out: 64 beaches nearby, sea at 22°C in August, many more restaurants near the centre and far more notable sights within walking distance.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Marseille leads by 67 points.67
| Annecy | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 67 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 2 |
| Beaches 10 km | 9 | 64 |
| Coast distance | 260 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | — | 0 km |
Places to eat. Marseille leads by 29 points.29
| Annecy | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 75 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 343 | 1,320 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 20 | 39 |
Museums & heritage. Marseille leads by 20 points.20
| Annecy | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 50 |
| Museums within 10 km | 9 | 33 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 5 | 23 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 56 | 70 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
Nightlife. Marseille leads by 28 points.28
| Annecy | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 48 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 140 | 544 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 120 | 454 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 86 | 83 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 6 | 30 |
Nature & day trips. Marseille leads by 1 points.1
| Annecy | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 20 | 15 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 19 | 13 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 56 |
| Park area within 2 km | 48 hectares | 25 hectares |
Good for families. Marseille leads by 15 points.15
| Annecy | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 44 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 4 | 17 |
| Park area within 2 km | 48 hectares | 25 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Marseille leads by 35 points.35
| Annecy | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 58 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 15 | 111 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Annecy and Marseille are level on 62.
| Annecy | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 62 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Marseille leads by 16 points.16
| Annecy | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 75 |
| Monthly daytime high | 5.1 °C to 26.8 °C | 11.8 °C to 30.7 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 55 mm to 94 mm | 11 mm to 82 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 6 |
Where they differ
Annecy is the greener and quieter of the two, with about twice as much park space near the centre as Marseille, and 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Marseille's 1. Evenings are correspondingly low-key: far fewer bars, and few clubs.
Marseille has 64 beaches nearby against Annecy's 9, and two months when the sea reaches 21°C or more, which Annecy never manages. It also has many more restaurants near the centre and a wider range of kitchens, with far more notable places within walking distance.
Where they are alike
The countryside is where they come nearest. Around Annecy 20% of the land is protected, around Marseille 15%, and in both cases the day trips are worth planning for rather than filler.
Both also work moderately well with children, with theme parks within reach, 4 from Marseille and 3 from Annecy, and both keep a modest museum offering rather than a headline one. Neither is a place you visit chiefly for its collections.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone whose holiday centres on swimming should go to Marseille: 64 beaches nearby and sea at 22°C in August, where Annecy has 9 beaches and no comparable open-water season at all.
Walkers and anyone travelling for the countryside will prefer Annecy, with more parkland near the centre, more protected land around it, and 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Marseille's 1.
Someone who plans the day around restaurants and late evenings should choose Marseille: many more places to eat, a much wider range of kitchens, many more bars and far more clubs, most of them near the centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure here is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it tells you nothing about which of the two costs more. The €160 a day beside each is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city, and what you actually spend will turn on season and choices the data does not cover.
Marseille's dry summer and long list of beaches describe the same few weeks everyone else has picked, and the driest month is also the hottest at 31°C. Autumn corrects sharply, 82mm in September, so a quieter shoulder trip may also be the wettest.
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). Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre).
Annecy is best from June to August, with highs of 24-27°C, but the rain never really stops: 77-81mm across those months and 87-94mm in autumn, so a wet spell is possible whenever you go.
Marseille's warm season runs from May to September at 24-31°C and is far drier at its peak, down to 11mm at the driest. Autumn reverses that, with 82mm in September. Winter stays walkable at 12-13°C where Annecy sits at 5-7°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Annecy | Marseille |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €91-200 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 50 m €65-134 1 stop MRS · 21 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 10 m €104-203 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 25 m €110-119 MRS · 21 km |
| BrusselsBRU, CRL | 1 h 20 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 1 h 40 m €86-123 1 stop MRS · 21 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 25 m €156-181 1 stop GVA · 38 km | 2 h 10 m €136-184 1 stop MRS · 21 km |
| PortoOPO | 2 h 10 m €127-171 1 stop GVA · 38 km | 2 h 0 m no fares MRS · 21 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 30 m €160-186 GVA · 38 km | 1 h 50 m no fares MRS · 21 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 55 m €147-338 GVA · 38 km | 2 h 55 m €219-245 1 stop MRS · 21 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 50 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 1 h 35 m no fares MRS · 21 km |
| NantesNTE | 1 h 20 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 1 h 30 m €72-162 MRS · 21 km |
| MontrealYUL, YHU, YMX | 7 h 35 m no fares GVA · 38 km | 7 h 45 m no fares MRS · 21 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 | Marseille |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 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 | 0 m |
| Main airport | Geneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre140 non-stop destinations | Marseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre125 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Annecy | Marseille |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 132,117 | 886,040 |
| People per km² | 1,975 | 3,683 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 27 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 44 | 93 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | 2 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Annecy or Marseille somewhere new.