The best beaches on Lake Annecy

If you go to one beach on Lake Annecy when you are visiting our campings Annecy campsites in the French Alps, this is probably the best! It’s a close call, but we would have to call Angon as our overall favourite Lake Annecy beach! It has the views, it has giant trees for shade and for swimming it is just magical! It’s position & outlook, looking over towards the Mt Charbon mountain behind Doussard in the Bauges is spectacular!

At Angon beach, you will find a cute little snack bar, serving snacks, drinks & ice creams, toilet & changing facilities, a volleyball area and a pontoon to enter the water in a dignified manner with rafts in the middle to jump off! In the high season this beach is a pay to enter beach and there are lifeguards to ensure your safety. The beach area is grassy with many shaded picnic spots and a stream, which acts as a natural paddling pool for toddlers. 

Parking at this beach is free and plentiful (if the parking on the left side of the road is full, you can park opposite on the other side of the road in the field and there is always enough space even on the busiest of days. 

Positives: Swimming at Angon is particularly lovely, the water is very clear here and the views are spectacular. The toilets are also very clean here and there are many of them!

Negatives: To get to Angon, you really do need to take the car (the cycle path to here from Doussard, is not yet complete and there are some dangerous parts on the road that make it only suitable for experienced cyclists and certainly not for those with children!). 

Doussard plage is a free beach situated at the ‘Bout du Lac’ within walking distance of our campsites, which makes it a favourite with our clients. In the high season, the beach has lifeguards and the beach is free to enter and use (dogs are however not allowed at all times of year).

There are 2 areas to Doussard beach; the grassy area with volleyball court and the beach area (made of fine gravel & stones). The beach has a playground and a snackbar and there are pontoons to swim out to. 

If you have paddle boards, Doussard beach is a great place to go from, you can paddle around the nature reserve which is beautiful (paddle boards, canoes etc are also available for hire at the end of the port, from ‘Ponton Deronzier’ / ‘Club Nautique, Doussard’. 

Top tip - Take a picnic one evening and go and sit down at the beach to watch the beautiful colours on the mountains and also do not forget to visit the nature reserve that is located at the end of the beach (this is fantastic for a little walk around and is pushchair / wheelchair friendly)

Positives: You can walk or cycle from Camping La Ravoire & Camping Les fontaines to this beach via the cycle path and the walk/cycle is very pleasant!

Negatives: If you want to drive to this beach, then you have to pay to park in the big carpark at the entrance. 

Located a 30min cycle ride/ 15min drive from our campsites, St Jorioz beach has the best of everything; sand, views and safe swimming and is highly recommended for families with young children. This beach has the only sandy beach on Lake Annecy and was awarded the "Blue Flag" label in 2010. The views of the mountains of ‘La Tournette’ (the highest on Lake Annecy) and the ’Dents de Lanfon’ from this beach are beautiful. 

Enjoy the sandy beach with your children and chill out under the shaded trees that are located on the grassy lawned area behind the beach. There is a volleyball court & pétanque area and at the water, there are diving boards, pontoons and a paddling pool for children. 

There is also a snack bar, toilets, showers and the beach is also disabled friendly for accessing the lake and has a ramp and 2 amphibian chairs.

The car park located next to the beach is free and large and you can normally find a space there. In the high season, the beach has lifeguards and there is an entry fee for the beach. 

Top tips: The nice thing about this beach is that from the beach, you can also do a nice walk whilst you are here on the ‘Roselières trail’. On the walk, you can walk on the lakeside and the views are very pretty.;

Positives: The best reason to visit this beach is for the sand which is really great for young children! 

Negatives: The actual views from this beach of the mountains are in our opinion, not the best views on Lake Annecy, for views we prefer the others!

Talloires beach is a lively beach with beautiful views of the mountains and a large sunny grassy lawned area that leads down to the lake. There are many trees that provide shade as well. It’s great here for young children.There’s also diving boards on the edge of the lake and a slide in the lake! There are 2 children’s pools that are supervised by lifeguards in the high season.

In the high season, there are lifeguards supervising and there is a small fee to pay to enter the beach and dogs are not accepted. 

You can find the following activities / facilities available at Talloires beach:

• Snack bar
• Toilets
• Big pool and children's pool  watched by the MNS
• Diving board and slide
• Paddling pool for kids 
• Beach volley ball 
• Petanque (bowls) strip. 
• (Volleyballs and table tennis rackets are available to borrow)
• Nautical centre (situated on the beach) with paddleboards & kayaks available for hire 

Positives: The biggest positive of Tailloires is the open view & position of this beach - the view here is particularly magnificent in our opinion!

Negatives: The negative point of going to Tailloires beach is that the parking can be difficult and in the high season you need to go early in the morning to find a parking space!