VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Annecy or Penang?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Penang for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Penang’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, Penang 44: Annecy leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Penang 86: Penang leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Penang 70: Penang leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Penang 40: Penang leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Penang 55: Annecy leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Penang 42: Annecy leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Penang 52: Annecy leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Penang 40: Annecy leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Penang 42: Penang leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Penang 78: Penang leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Penang 30: Annecy leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Penang 42: Annecy leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Penang.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Annecy
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Penang
52match

Wins on prices and food and drink 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

Penang in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyPenang

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). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyPenang
Official languageFrenchMalay
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation418 m4 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyPenang
City population132,117794,313
People per km²1,975-
Museums within 10 km19
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Annecy or Penang 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.