VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Annecy or San Jose?

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

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose San Jose for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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 Jose 30: Annecy leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, San Jose 36: Annecy leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, San Jose 33: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, San Jose 72: Annecy leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, San Jose 30: Annecy leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, San Jose 20: Annecy leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, San Jose 30: Annecy leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and San Jose.

Your match

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

Annecy
Best match
50match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on shopping 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 Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecySan Jose

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 Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecySan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecySan Jose
City population132,1171,013,240
People per km²1,9752,167
Museums within 10 km119
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 Jose 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.