VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Alta, Utah or Interlaken?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Alta, Utah for

  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Interlaken for

  • getting around
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Interlaken’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Alta, Utah 3, Interlaken 30: Interlaken leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Interlaken 25: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Interlaken 8: Interlaken leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Interlaken 15: Interlaken leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Interlaken 97: Interlaken leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Interlaken 78: Interlaken leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Interlaken 72: Interlaken leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Interlaken 80: Interlaken leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Interlaken 22: Interlaken leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Interlaken 8: Alta, Utah leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Interlaken 15: Interlaken leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Interlaken 40: Interlaken leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Interlaken.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Alta, Utah
23match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Interlaken
Best match
41match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahInterlaken

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Interlaken has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahInterlaken
Official language-French, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,610 m571 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahInterlaken
City population2286,123
People per km²191,424
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Interlaken somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.