VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Annecy or Queenstown?

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
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Queenstown’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, Queenstown 20: Annecy leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Queenstown 45: Annecy leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Queenstown 12: Annecy leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Queenstown 50: Annecy leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Annecy and Queenstown are level on 60.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Queenstown 45: Annecy leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Queenstown 28: Annecy leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Queenstown 20: Annecy leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Queenstown 14: Annecy leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Queenstown 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 Queenstown.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors 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

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecyQueenstown

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.

Queenstown has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAnnecyQueenstown
Official languageFrenchEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation418 m324 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecyQueenstown
City population132,11729,000
People per km²1,975-
Museums within 10 km10
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 Queenstown 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.