Staying in Annecy

I visited Annecy a few years ago and stayed for a couple of days and really enjoyed it. I would think that you could easily spend a couple of more days, particularly if you were looking to slow down a bit. I thought the town and the lake was lovely.

Pam

As Pamela said, the town and the lake are lovely. The park by the lake is great for doing lots of nothing and is an excellent place to have a picnic with goodies from lots of local merchants. A boat trip around the lake is very scenic and relaxing. Don't remember the day of the week, but the local market day is super. One can easily spend 2 or 3 (maybe 4) full days there if the goal is to just relax and be laid back for a while. TC

I was in Annecy for 2 days in 2012. The market in the old town is on Friday and it was wonderful, but there are markets most every day in different areas of the town - I don't think there's one on Monday. I just loved Annecy, it was one of my favorite places in France and I wish I could have stayed a couple more days. Definitely take the boat ride around the lake (if the weather is cooperative) and maybe stop in one of the villages for lunch. There are walking paths around the lake and also you could rent a bicycle to get around. It's a lovely place to decompress for a few days.

We loved staying there. Three nights were not enough! We were there over a weekend and Saturday was a market day in the old pedestrian zone right behind our hotel. It's amazing how much better French junk looks than American junk.

We walked all over the park and took the boat ride around the lake.

These are a couple of links to blog postings I did about our stay there.

The first one is mostly about the town: http://travelswithtrout.blogspot.com/2011/10/europe-june-2011-annecy.html. I took lots of pictures. I'm not sure if all the links I put in are still functional, but you can click on the pictures to see them bigger and only them.

The same goes for our ride around the lake: http://travelswithtrout.blogspot.com/2011/10/europe-june-2011-lake-annecy.html.

You will love it there.

I stayed in Annecy in early September for 3 days -- loved it! It can get super crowded as some quite large tourist boats dock there. But by late afternoon they're gone and it's very peaceful. My favorite day was spent cycling, about 30 miles total, around the lake -- amazing views.

We first stayed in Annecy for a week in 2009, and loved it. We returned a couple of times in subsequent years. Here is a link to several blog posts I wrote about our stay there: http://mainelywinenews.blogspot.com/search?q=annecy

My wife and I stayed in Annecy for three nights on our 2010 France trip. We stayed at Hotel des Alps from Rick's book and enjoyed it quite a lot, both the hotel and the town. There is not a huge amount to see there, but it is very scenic and it's a great place to slow down and just be in the place, rather than ticking off boxes of must-see sights. It can be like a vacation from your vacation, as Rick likes to say. Be aware that parking is difficult though, hotels typically have an arrangement with a garage in town but ask in advance - and it might not that easy to find. I would definitely consider a day trip to Chamonix, which we did on our trip. It was too cloudy to take the cable cars but we did the rack railroad to the Mer de Glace and it was a very memorable experience. Chamonix would also be be worth considering as place to stay. The French Alps in general are very underrated in my opinion. Annecy and Chamonix are both very charming, and this is next to the last place people go in France, a country with so many great regions to visit. We were there in May, and I am very sure they are times when it's packed, but we found no crowds whatsoever.