Getting around Annecy: Sibra bus fares, operating hours and blind spots
A ticket bought on board costs a third more than one bought beforehand, the annual pass fell from €365 to €100, and the network stops earlier than you might think. The official figures, and what they leave out.
In Annecy, public transport comes down to one name: Sibra, the Grand Annecy bus network. There is no tram, no metro and no open timetable feed: the town has no usable open data portal and no GTFS catalogue.
What does exist is a complete fare table, overhauled on 1 July 2024, with a spectacular cut on passes and a discreet trap on single tickets. This page covers getting around once you are in Annecy, not the transfer from Geneva airport.
The map below is drawn by Annecy365 from OpenStreetMap data: the main lines, their terminuses and their connections. You can download it and keep it on your phone.
Download the network map (JPG, 215 KB) ↓
The official, complete and up-to-date map is the operator's: Sibra.
Download the official map: Sibra network, central Annecy, from 31 August 2026 (PDF, in French) ↓
How much does a bus journey cost in Annecy?
Photo: Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Sibra ticketing rules always distinguish buying on board from buying in advance. It is the first thing to understand before you get on.
- One journey bought on board: €2.00.
- One journey bought off the bus (card top-up or digital purchase): €1.50.
- Two journeys: €2.80.
- Tribu ticket, four people on the same journey: €5.00.
- Book of 10: €11.70 to €11.90 full fare, €8.50 to €8.70 for young people, €9.70 to €9.90 for seniors.
The range on the books of tickets is not an approximation on our part: the Grand Annecy fare table and the retailers' form do not give the same price, by 20 cents. The gap is small, but it shows that pricing has not yet been harmonised.
Why does paying on board cost a third more?
Two euros against one euro fifty is a 33% surcharge for the same seat on the same bus. The operator's press release is explicit: tickets bought on board went up to €2, those sold elsewhere stayed at €1.50.
For a couple making four journeys over a weekend, the difference reaches €4. The book of 10, at €11.70 to €11.90, brings a journey under €1.20, which is 40% less than the driver's ticket.
The Tribu ticket is the best deal of the lot for a family: €5.00 for four people on the same journey, against €8 in tickets bought on board.
What did the 2024 overhaul change for passes?
The overhaul of 1 July 2024 brought the adult annual pass down from €365 to €100. This is not a promotion, it is the new fare table.
- Monthly, all ages: €40.
- Monthly solidarity pass: €20, means-tested.
- Adult annual: €100.
- Annual for under-18s, students under 26 and seniors over 65: €80.
A multimodal zone combining bus and train also exists, with an all-ages annual pass at €450, an under-26 annual at €192, and monthly passes at €55 and €27.
For a stay of less than a week, none of these products makes sense: the book of 10 remains the right choice, and the Tribu ticket for a group.
The factor that matters more than the ticket: in Annecy, the distance between your accommodation and the Pâquier decides your transport budget. An address less than fifteen minutes' walk from the centre removes the question, and the hotel search for Annecy can be filtered by area before you compare prices.
See accommodation close to the centre →Partner link: booking through this link supports the site at no extra cost to you.What time do the buses run until?
The Grand Annecy press kit gives target operating hours for the main lines, and it is the only consolidated timetable information available.
- Monday to Thursday: 6am to 10pm.
- Friday and Saturday: 6am to midnight.
- Sundays and public holidays: 8am to 8pm.
Two important caveats. These hours apply to the backbone of the network, not to suburban services or to the lines along the lake, whose first and last departures are tighter.
And the line-by-line timetables are not included in the general documents. The only published frequency we found is for line 15: every 25 minutes Monday to Saturday, outside summer.
In practice, for a Sunday dinner by the lake: the network only runs 8am to 8pm, so the last bus leaves before dessert. Plan to walk back or to drive.
What does the summer free travel actually cover?
Grand Annecy promotes free summer travel on the Sibra network. The exact wording of the documents ties it to pass holders: it means the summer months are not charged extra, not that the network becomes free to use.
No document consulted describes free travel for people without a pass. A visitor who arrives in July counting on free buses will be disappointed: the ticket stays at €2.00 on board.
What does the network not tell you?
The first silence concerns fines. The Sibra rules provide for penalties for fare dodging, but no amount appears in the published documents. It is impossible to say what being caught without a ticket costs.
The second concerns accessibility. No percentage of low-floor buses, no inventory of adapted stops, no mention of audio announcements. French regulations impose obligations, but the network does not publish how far it meets them.
The third concerns digital payment. The texts speak of "digital purchase" without saying which app, or whether a foreign bank card can open an account. For a visitor from abroad, paying on board remains the safe option, at the highest fare.
How far is it on foot and by bike?
Annecy is a town you walk. Every link in the centre takes under twenty minutes, and none of them justifies taking a bus.
- Railway station to the old town: 800 to 1,200 m, 10 to 20 minutes.
- Old town to the Palais de l'Île: 100 to 300 m, 5 to 10 minutes.
- Old town to the castle: 300 to 600 m uphill, 10 to 20 minutes.
- Old town to the Jardins de l'Europe and the Pâquier: 500 to 1,000 m, 10 to 20 minutes.
The bike takes over as soon as you head for the villages: the lake circuit is 37 km, including 33 km of cycle paths, with 250 m of climbing. Talloires is 45 to 90 minutes' cycling from Annecy.
Parking follows a logic of its own: we detail the tariff in parking in Annecy, and the geography of the zones in the map of Annecy.
Sources
Sibra (bus and coach rules and general terms of sale, 1 July 2024; line 15 timetable sheet, 2024; new fares page), Grand Annecy (mobility fares page; press kit "le réseau Sibra se réinvente", 29 April 2024; minutes of the council meeting of 25 April 2024).
Transdev Annecy (fares press release, July 2024), Ville d'Annecy (council decision of 15 December 2025), commune of Argonay (Sibra fare table at 1 July 2024), Office de tourisme du lac d'Annecy for cycling distances (2025). Research consolidated on 12 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How much is a bus ticket in Annecy?
Are buses free in summer in Annecy?
What time do Sibra buses run until?
Do you need a car to visit Annecy?
How much is the Sibra annual pass?
Léa Missillier
Léa spent four years in the planning department of a municipality in the Annecy area, where she saw the parking orders go through. She knows how to read a municipal regulation and spot what it leaves out. She dates every price she publishes.
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