VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
Palm Springs

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Annecy or Palm Springs?

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
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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, Palm Springs 7: Annecy leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Palm Springs 40: Annecy leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Palm Springs 42: Palm Springs leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Palm Springs 36: Palm Springs leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Palm Springs 78: Annecy leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Palm Springs 38: Annecy leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Palm Springs 40: Annecy leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Palm Springs 22: Annecy leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Palm Springs 44: Palm Springs leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Palm Springs 32: Annecy leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Palm Springs.

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 getting around with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness and nightlife 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
15 hdaylight a day

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyPalm Springs

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.

Palm Springs 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.

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). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyPalm Springs
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 m146 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyPalm Springs
City population132,11744,575
People per km²1,975181
Museums within 10 km13
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Annecy or Palm Springs 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. 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.