VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Annecy or Samarkand?

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
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Samarkand’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, Samarkand 4: Annecy leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Samarkand 14: Annecy leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Samarkand 40: Annecy leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Samarkand 30: Annecy leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Samarkand 58: Annecy leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Samarkand 24: Annecy leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Samarkand 32: Annecy leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Annecy
Best match
50match

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

Samarkand
45match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecySamarkand

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). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecySamarkand
Official languageFrenchUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation418 m702 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecySamarkand
City population132,117546,303
People per km²1,9755,058
Museums within 10 km111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

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