Amsterdam or Zurich?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and good for families with your weighting.
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Amsterdam if you want museums and eating out within walking distance, a stronger run of things for children, and the option of a beach day, even with a sea that reaches 19°C at best.
Choose Zurich if warm summer days matter most, with highs of 24°C in midsummer, and you are content with a smaller spread of museums, restaurants and bars.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Amsterdam leads by 40 points.40
| Amsterdam | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 33 | 23 |
| Coast distance | 24 km | 632 km |
| Water distance | 24 km | — |
Places to eat. Amsterdam leads by 16 points.16
| Amsterdam | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83 | 67 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,957 | 974 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 44 | 30 |
Museums & heritage. Amsterdam leads by 24 points.24
| Amsterdam | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 56 |
| Museums within 10 km | 98 | 76 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 69 | 37 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 1 |
Nightlife. Amsterdam leads by 16 points.16
| Amsterdam | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 54 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,543 | 676 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,078 | 553 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 70 | 82 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 114 | 74 |
Nature & day trips. Amsterdam leads by 23 points.23
| Amsterdam | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 21 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 9 |
| Land share of disc % | 82 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 49 hectares | 48 hectares |
Good for families. Amsterdam leads by 32 points.32
| Amsterdam | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 36 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 74 | 8 |
| Park area within 2 km | 49 hectares | 48 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Amsterdam leads by 9 points.9
| Amsterdam | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 59 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 196 | 119 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Amsterdam leads by 23 points.23
| Amsterdam | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 35 |
| Price level global | 79.2 | 110.5 |
| Daily budget | €181 | €248 |
Year-round weather. Amsterdam leads by 4 points.4
| Amsterdam | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.1 °C to 23.1 °C | 3.6 °C to 24.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 42 mm to 85 mm | 60 mm to 128 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Amsterdam has roughly twice as many restaurants near the centre, about twice as many bars and clubs, and twice as many notable places within walking distance. It has more museums, sitting tightly around the centre, and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Zurich's 1. For families, far more attractions sit near the centre, with 3 theme parks within reach against 2, and 33 beaches nearby against 23.
Zurich runs warmer, 4-24°C across the year against Amsterdam's 6-23°C, and its winter months are the drier of the two.
Where they are alike
Both sit in the same weather band: July highs of 23-24°C, January days of 4-6°C, and annual sunshine of 1693 hours in Amsterdam and 1664 in Zurich. Neither has a month at 40mm of rain or less.
Both keep their sights compact, with the notable places, the bars and the restaurants clustered near the centre, so either city can be covered on foot. Park space near the centre is much the same in each.
Which traveller are you?
Families: Amsterdam. Many times more attractions sit near the centre than in Zurich, there are 3 theme parks within reach against 2, and park space is comparable, so short legs and wet afternoons are easier to plan for.
Museum and restaurant travellers: Amsterdam again. Roughly twice as many restaurants near the centre, museums packed tightly around the middle of town, and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Zurich's 1.
Anyone chasing warmth: Zurich holds the warmer summer days, 24°C in midsummer, provided a wet summer is acceptable. Swimmers should note that neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €181 for the Netherlands and €248 for Switzerland, are national price levels for restaurants and hotels, not measurements of Amsterdam or Zurich. A capital or a heavily visited city can sit well away from its own country's average, by more than the gap between these two, so neither figure tells you what a week in either city will cost.
Amsterdam's beach count also flatters the swimming: the sea peaks at 19°C in August, so those beaches are for walking more than bathing. And in both cities the warmest months are also the wettest, Zurich's most sharply.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Amsterdam: 1991-2020 normals, De Bilt (35.3 km from centre). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).
Amsterdam is at its best in high summer, with highs of 21-23°C and the sea at its warmest in August, 19°C. Rain is steady rather than seasonal here: the driest stretch comes in spring, around 42mm, while the summer months carry 84-85mm.
Zurich's warmest days reach 24°C in midsummer, but those same months are its wettest, near 126mm, with late spring wetter still. September, at 19°C and 87mm, is the steadier window; midwinter days sit at 4°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Amsterdam | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €93-112 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 9 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 15 m €166-175 AMS · 12 km | 2 h 45 m €110-133 ZRH · 9 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 10 m €130-171 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 40 m €114-151 ZRH · 9 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 25 m €160-183 AMS · 12 km | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| BerlinBER | 1 h 20 m €150-227 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 25 m €140-176 ZRH · 9 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 35 m €512-556 1 stop AMS · 12 km | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 45 m €318-346 1 stop AMS · 12 km | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 50 m €188-239 AMS · 12 km | 2 h 40 m €188-233 ZRH · 9 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 11 h 30 m no fares AMS · 12 km | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 12 h 10 m no fares AMS · 12 km | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Amsterdam | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Dutch | French, German, Italian, Romansh |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Swiss Franc (CHF) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CJ230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 or 911 | 112 |
| Elevation | -2 m | 408 m |
| Main airport | Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinations | Zürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre181 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Amsterdam | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 921,468 | 452,421 |
| People per km² | 4,208 | 5,147 |
| Museums within 10 km | 101 | 63 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 98 | 78 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amsterdam or Zurich somewhere new.