VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Annecy or San Francisco?

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
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Annecy leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, San Francisco 80: Annecy leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, San Francisco 14: Annecy leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, San Francisco 42: Annecy leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Annecy
50match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts 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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecySan Francisco

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). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecySan Francisco
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 m16 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecySan Francisco
City population132,117873,965
People per km²1,9751,455
Museums within 10 km151
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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