Annecy is one of the best bases in the French Alps for short trips: lakeside villages, ski resorts, the Bauges and Aravis mountains, Geneva over the border, and the Mont Blanc area an hour and a half east.
Closest are the lakeside villages — Talloires (with its medieval abbey and Père Bise restaurant), Menthon-Saint-Bernard with its fairy-tale castle, and the medieval village of Duingt with its lake-spit château. A little further: the ski resorts of La Clusaz, Le Grand-Bornand and Le Semnoz; the Cheese village of Reblochon at Thônes; the gorges of the Fier; and Geneva, easily reached by motorway in under an hour. Mont Blanc and Chamonix lie about 90 minutes east on the A40.