VacationSelector
Wat Pho, Bangkok
BangkokWat Pho
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Bangkok by Lu Zhao, Pexels License; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Bangkok or Lucerne?

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 Bangkok for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Lucerne’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. Bangkok 12, Lucerne 35: Lucerne leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Bangkok 95, Lucerne 35: Bangkok leads by 60 points.
Culture & sights. Bangkok 80, Lucerne 58: Bangkok leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Bangkok 85, Lucerne 28: Bangkok leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bangkok 25, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 67 points.
Day trips. Bangkok 72, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Bangkok 50, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Bangkok 50, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Bangkok 80, Lucerne 46: Bangkok leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Bangkok 85, Lucerne 8: Bangkok leads by 77 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bangkok 52, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bangkok 75, Lucerne 46: Bangkok leads by 29 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bangkok and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Bangkok
Best match
63match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Lucerne
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bangkok in July

34 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
184 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BangkokLucerne

Where the figures come from

Lucerne 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.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bangkok: 1991-2020 normals, Bangkok (5.7 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBangkokLucerne
Official languageThaiFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyBaht (THB)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation2 m436 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)26 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBangkokLucerne
City population5,676,64886,234
People per km²3,6192,963
Museums within 10 km5914
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bangkok or Lucerne somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.