Magnificent Savoyard house on the shore of Lake Annecy, 2 minutes from the beach

We stayed here as a family of five with three teens, and the house is spacious enough that each teen had his or her own bedroom. The house was a very comfortable place to hang out, with a cozy living room area on the ground floor, a kitchen / dining area with enough seating to accomodate our group, and a garden to sit in outdoors that we didn't really take good advantage of due to the weather not cooperating. The location is within an easy walk of a bicycle rental place / cafe, the beach on the lake with kayak and paddleboat rentals, a lakefront restaurant, and probably other activities that I didn't pick up on since we were there only two nights rather than the week that seems to be more typical for the area. Grocery stores are five or ten minutes' drive away. Please note that the rather hefty deposit to be paid at the beginning of the stay appears to be typical of this area from what I could tell, even though it's not something I've seen in other places, and our cash deposit was returned as soon as the lady checking us out had looked over the place. Please note also that you do have the choice of cleaning the place yourself -- meaning the full cleaning, not just the tidying and emptying of trash and so on you'll be doing anyway -- but having the housekeeper clean it is an extra fee to be paid at the time you're checking in, so just assume that will be part of the cost of the place if you don't want to do the heavy cleaning yourself. Housekeeping fees are typical of vacation rental places in my experience, and the only difference here is that you're paying it separately at the time you check in rather than having it be part of what you pay through this site. Again, this is a comfortable house that had plenty of room for our family and is within walking distance from many activities and some restaurants. We enjoyed our stay here and I wish we'd had longer to try the different activities and explore the area.

This property is really good value especially if you can fill it, it is wonderfully close to amenities including beach, restaurants, cycle hire , nature walks and stunning views but on hot evenings the noise from the parties on the lake shore is a drawback. The garden could do with a little tidy up and there are a few tired/broken fixtures (washing line, big awning) but overall it's a sensibly priced, well positioned house and was perfect for 6 adults and 6 kids (we brought one extra inflatable bed to avoid older kids sharing the double). The high breakage deposit caused me some stress (getting 820 euros together on day 1!!!!) and would be more understandable if the property were in top condition but there was no problem with getting it back and UK banks don't charge for euro cheques if you push hard in branch. We brought duvet covers, pillow cases and towels to save 16 euros pp and that worked well (square pillows but UK ones fit). I would absolutely recommend this house above others we considered on the other side of the lake due to the location and sensible inside space. For runners, casual and serious cyclists and beach lovers, a base here and a planned trip to Talloires gives you the best of everything.