Annecy in 2 Days: What It Costs & Must-Do Activities!

Wondering what to do in Annecy, France and how much it costs? In this video, I’ll take you through two incredible days in this breathtaking lakeside town, sharing all the prices along the way! 🇫🇷

We’ll start by wandering through Annecy’s Old Town, exploring its canals, medieval streets, and famous landmarks like the Palais de l’Île and Pont des Amours. Then, I’ll take you on a scenic hike with panoramic lake views, followed by an unforgettable bike ride around Lake Annecy.

If you’re planning a trip to Annecy, this video will help you see the highlights and budget accordingly! Watch now & start planning your perfect Annecy getaway!

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Items Discussed:
Where I Stayed (Icone Hôtel): https://maps.app.goo.gl/VCYTrukjPyzxq48e9
Good bakery (Campagne Boulangerie): https://maps.app.goo.gl/rqTDbzBFTcFW7mW47
Dinner (fondue) at Le Freti: https://maps.app.goo.gl/SaLBZk6svTycwXRY7
Bike Rental (Yaka): https://maps.app.goo.gl/YNZPaZ8paRSSUv18A

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00:00:00 Introduction
00:02:31 Where I Stayed
00:03:06 Crime
00:03:31 Language Barrier
00:06:06 Canals & Old Town
00:06:35 Rue Sainte-Claire
00:06:54 Island Palace / Le Palais de I’Île
00:07:09 Castle / Chateau de Annecy
00:07:26 Lover’s Bridge / Pont des Amours
00:07:45 St. Maurice Church / Eglise Saint Maurice
00:08:01 Basilica / Basilique de la Visitation
00:08:16 Hiking
00:11:37 Cycling
00:14:45 What To Eat?
00:15:19 Cost Breakdown

Comment with questions, tips, or ideas you want to explore. Now, let’s hit the road!

#Annecy #FranceTravel #AnnecyItinerary #LakeAnnecy #TravelCosts #retirementtravel #FranceOnABudget #slowtravel #budgettravel #fulltimetravel #over40 #solofemaletraveler #travel #worldtravel #internationaltravel #travelplanning #cityguides #hiking

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hi and welcome back I was recently in Leon and while I was there I had the chance to spend a couple of days in a nearby town of Anese which is in the Alps of France I really enjoyed it and whether you’ve been wanting to go to ansy for a long time or you’ve never heard of ansy this video should be helpful to you in it I will go over why I chose to visit an toy and I will talk about some of the musty places and things to do in the area including two of my very favorites in the end I’ll also go over how much each thing costs so you can get an idea if visiting FY is something that you’d like to do if you’re new here my name is Kia and I have traveled to almost 60 countries over the last 25 years and in 2024 I quit my job to travel the world full-time I love talking about travel and learning from others so please drop a note in the comments if you have any tips for me and hopefully we can learn from each other okay let’s get started anasty is an easy day trip from Leon but I chose to spend two nights there so I could get a real taste of it and there were a couple of activities that I wanted to do that were would take a little bit longer I chose ansy because it is in the mountains and as much as I was enjoying my time in Leon I wanted to get out and do a little bit more outdoor activities I was a little bit worried because when I went it was February and I wasn’t sure exactly how much snow was going to be on some of the mountains around town but luckily for me not maybe luckily for the water table the mountains didn’t have a lot of snow on them and I was able to get up into a little bit higher elevation but we’ll go into that more a little bit at the end of this video to get to an toy from Leone you can either take a bus bus or a train both of them take roughly about the same amount of time but actually the bus was a little bit faster and it was a little bit cheaper so for example the bus was about $15 each way and the train was about $30 each way when I looked up the prices if you take the bus you’ll go from the Leon par station which is a little bit south of the main station the departures for the bus station are on the west side of the station near near to the sewn River the bus basically took about 2 hours there were bathrooms on board the bus and and even Wi-Fi so it was a very comfortable ride it drops you off right at the train station in nany which is also the bus station and from there you can easily walk to the Oldtown section which is the main part of town and from the Oldtown section you can easily walk to most of the main attractions as well as the lake I actually didn’t even need to use public transportation while I was in anasty because pretty much everything was walking distance of course if you want to go out to any farther flung hikes or there’s many little towns around the lake then you would need to take another bus I stayed right in the Oldtown section in a pretty simple hotel but it worked perfectly for me it had breakfast if you wanted to pay extra but I didn’t do that because literally right next door was a very good bakery called The Artisan Bakery and it had great morning pastries for about $2 to $2.50 I also found my new favorite pastry which I’m going to show you right now my favorite usually is almond croissant but I also like hanos chak lot the one with chocolate this one is almond and chocolate allinone it’s like The Best of Both Worlds as far as crime and safety anesty has a crime index of 52 which lower is better and a safety index of 47 which higher is better so it basically is about on par with most of the other cities in France that I’ve talked about so far but I walked around by myself at night didn’t have any issues at all and there were plenty of other people walking around later at night and I also did a couple of early morning runs near the lake again lots of people out no problems at all as far as language barrier it’s not an issue at all an is a pretty touristy town and if you’re going to be staying in the main Old Town part of town you won’t have any issues at all also you can use your credit card and tap to pay for pretty much anything but there is a pretty good Friday Market in the morning and you might want to have a little bit of cash on hand for that in case you want to buy some local produce but other than that I didn’t even use any cash at all as far as the cost of groceries goes I’m not sure because I didn’t buy groceries I basically brought snacks from Leon with with me and then bought a couple of baguettes and then pastries for breakfast and I ate lunch out for a nice fondue meal with wine it’s about $32 there are lots of things to do while wandering around town that are worthwhile and I’ll talk about those in a minute but first let me introduce you to the town hello today I’m in Anna and as you can see I have a beautiful view behind me and I thought this would be a great chance to give you a little bit of history about an ay so I came here today from Leon on a bus and it was about a 2-hour ride very very easy uh ansy is in the French Alps and my bus actually was continuing on continuing on to Shaman so I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Shaman but if you haven’t that’s also a very nice town it’s a little bit further away from Leon but um this is a beautiful town it’s a little medieval town and its nickname is the Venice of the Alps and the reason it’s named that is because it has a lot of canals and it’s right on a lake so it’s a beautiful little town and it L there’s some of the places that are there are the most photographed spots in France so I will take you through some of those a little bit later but for now this is Lake ansy behind me and as you can see the Alps they actually don’t have too much snow this year which is why I’m able to get up to where I’m at so I’m roughly around 2200 ft at the moment and there is no snow so that’s good for me for hiking in January but um probably not as great for them for you know having and all that other stuff but it it’s a beautiful day it has been raining a little bit but luckily it cleared up just in time for me to do this video so welcome to an toy and I’ll give you some more information soon as you can see the big attraction is the lake you can walk bike or run along the paths around the lake but you can also swim in multiple different areas and you can boat and kayak and probably many other different activities like I said I was there in the winter I think it would be a great place to go back to in summer although I’m sure it’s quite busy in addition add to the Natural Beauty there are plenty of man-made things to see as well the first is the canals in the old town n’s old town is a well preserved medieval quarter known for its cobblestone streets colorful buildings and flowerline canals the the river one of the shortest in France is only 3.5 km long but despite its small size it was essential in shaping the town’s history it powered water Mills tanneries and forges which made ansy an economic Hub in the Middle Ages today the canals add to the town’s charm and as I mentioned it they are why anes is called the Venice of the Alps the main street is called the r St Clair and is one of the most historic streets in Ane and is lined with 17th and 18th century arcades that once sheltered Merchants from the rain it was the heart of an’s commercial District where Traders sold wool leather and fresh produce and even today that is where the Friday morning Market is held the island Palace which was built in the 12th century is a triangular Stone building which sits in the middle of the few River making it one of France’s most photographed sites during World War II it was used as a Nazi prison but today it’s a museum of local history showcasing anas’s trade and religious past the chatau de anosy or the anes castle sits up a little bit higher on the hill it was built between the 12th and 16th centuries and it once housed the counts of Geneva once the counts left the castle was repurposed as military Barracks today it’s a museum showcasing medeval artifacts Alpine Landscapes and Regional art the next thing to see sits right on Lake Anese and it it’s the lovers Bridge or the P dour built in 1907 this elegant Iron Bridge crosses the canal deas and offers really good views of Lake ansy some believe the name was inspired by the legend that if two lovers kiss on the bridge they will be together forever the next thing is the IG samares or the St morce church this was built in the 15th century and is an’s oldest church inside you can see faded 15th century frescos which survived the anti- Catholic vandalism during the French Revolution and now one more church but in my opinion this one is the best one and it’s the basilic de la vasion it sits really high up on a hill and has a really nice view of the Town below as well as a lake but in addition to that the Basilica itself is very pretty but that’s enough man-made stuff for now let’s get to the fun stuff so what I came to do in NC was some hiking so the first one I did was a hike up to the qua duug I’m going to show you that now I’m going to go now with there hopefully for a view before it starts to rain heading up the hill and to get run over okay I found a path okay I found what I wanted I’m literally just about a 10-minute walk up the hill from the lake and you can see here that uh 20 minutes walk is Panorama this is called the communal Forest of Anese and it’s a dirt Trail now which is nice and I just like I said about 10 minutes from the lake which is perfect it’s really easy to get up here it is a little bit straight up so that’s not super easy but uh it’s very close at least so let’s see here we go so it looks like I made it to the Panorama but as you can see there’s a bit of trees in the way so I’m not really sure exactly where the Panorama is so this is a nice Trail as you can see and you can see the lake over there kind of through the trees but there’s not really a clearing where you can have a really nice view of the lake which is kind of what I was expecting so maybe that will change but for the moment it’s been nice hiking but not a great view so my trail is going downhill which is never a good sign when I’m going to try try to find a view you don’t want to be going downhill all right I think I got to the let’s see qua the qua de sh all right 700 M so that’s about roughly 2200 ft and let’s see here oh oh yeah e this is a good one you’re going to love this oh man this is what I was looking for this exactly what I was looking for so C that’s where you need to go ready there’s a little bench so let’s see I can sit on it sit on the little bench nice yeah and then I can see the view the next day despite less than Stellar weather I rented a bike and rode around the lake this is a 42 km or 26 Mile Loop that takes about 2 and 1 half hours if you go continuously or can take as much time as you want if you stop for snacks and coffee and pictures and whatnot let me give you a little taste of that now okay I’m riding around the lake woohoo woohoo woohoo [Music] so I’ve gone about 12 miles so far which is about halfway and it’s threatening to rain it’s actually sprinkling a little bit right now so that’s not great but I guess I it’s an excuse to stop for a coffee um anyway the route doesn’t go right along the lake the whole time so you can see here I’m on a bike trail um so I don’t know we’ll see about the west side of the lake but on the east side of the lake it’s not always right near the [Music] lake I look like a drunk Soldier I don’t know why this thing won’t go straight anyway this bike is is okay but not the best bike I’ve ever ridden so this wide seat not my favorite thing a little uncomfortable but it’s okay this is the town of dwin I’m not sure how to pronounce it but um the cool thing about it is this Castle back here so it looks like though unfortunately the gates are closed so I don’t think I can get in but it’s a nice place for photograph we made it back to anasty you might remember this okay so now after all that activity you’re probably hungry so what should you get in ansy just like in many of the places in the Alps the fondue and rocklet are very popular these are more of a winter dish so if you’re there in the winter you’ll definitely be able to find them but most likely since it is a little bit of a touristy Town you’ll probably be able to still get them in the summer months I went to the restaurant called Le Freddy and I enjoyed it a lot also in case you’re worried about the language barrier pretty much all of the servers there spoke English and pretty much a lot of the clients that were there around me were speaking English as well okay now let me get to the fun part how much did it cost to spend 2 Days in ansy the first thing the accommodation was $28 for two nights next for dining out I just went out to lunch and that was $32 and that was a complete fondue meal with a couple glasses of wine I got two morning pastries and that ran me about $525 for the bike rental for 4 hours it was about $16 my only groceries were two baguettes to supplement what I had brought from Leon and that cost about $2.75 and then my transportation to and from Leon on the bus was $27 so basically all in all the total came out to approximately $211 which is about $106 a day so it’s not the cheapest place to go but I do think it’s well worth it for me I had a really great time getting out into the mountains getting some fresh air being able to bike around the lake doing more active things that are not in the city as much so it was nice to have a little bit of a change so if you’re staying in Leon for a while I do recommend an toy as a couple day trip and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed once again if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments comments I’d be happy to answer any that you have and if you found this video helpful please consider subscribing so you don’t miss others like it and thank you very much for watching and happy travels