VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
The old town below the fortress, Salzburg
SalzburgThe old town below the fortress

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Salzburg by Leonhard Niederwimmer, Pexels License.

Annecy or Salzburg?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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

Choose Salzburg for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Salzburg’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, Salzburg 35: Annecy leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Salzburg 45: Annecy leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Salzburg 72: Salzburg leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Annecy and Salzburg are level on 25.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Salzburg 86: Annecy leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Salzburg 80: Salzburg leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Salzburg 65: Salzburg leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Salzburg 72: Salzburg leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Salzburg 48: Salzburg leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Salzburg 32: Annecy leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Salzburg 80: Salzburg leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Salzburg 55: Salzburg leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Salzburg.

Your match

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

Annecy
50match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Salzburg
Best match
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

Salzburg in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecySalzburg

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). Salzburg: 1991-2020 normals, Salzburg (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecySalzburg
Official languageFrenchGerman, Austrian Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation418 m424 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsSalzburg Airport (SZG)3 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecySalzburg
City population132,117155,021
People per km²1,9752,360
Museums within 10 km138
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Annecy or Salzburg 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.