VacationSelector
The Thiou canal with the castle behind, Annecy
AnnecyThe Thiou canal with the castle behind
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Annecy by Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Annecy or Sapporo?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • nightlife
  • wellness
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sapporo’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, Sapporo 28: Annecy leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Annecy 50, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Annecy 38, Sapporo 40: Sapporo leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Annecy 25, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Annecy 92, Sapporo 86: Annecy leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Annecy 70, Sapporo 64: Annecy leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Annecy 60, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Annecy 62, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Annecy 35, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Annecy 35, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Annecy 33, Sapporo 44: Sapporo leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Annecy 48, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Annecy and Sapporo.

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.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on nightlife and wellness 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

Sapporo in July

25 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AnnecySapporo

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). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAnnecySapporo
Official languageFrenchJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation418 m5 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)38 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAnnecySapporo
City population132,1171,959,313
People per km²1,9751,747
Museums within 10 km133
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

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