VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Beijing 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 Beijing for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Interlaken for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • getting around

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. Beijing 6, Interlaken 30: Interlaken leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Interlaken 25: Beijing leads by 56 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Interlaken 8: Beijing leads by 85 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Interlaken 15: Beijing leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Interlaken 97: Interlaken leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Interlaken 78: Beijing leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Interlaken 72: Interlaken leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Interlaken 80: Interlaken leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Interlaken 22: Beijing leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Interlaken 8: Beijing leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Interlaken 15: Beijing leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Interlaken 40: Beijing leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Interlaken.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Interlaken
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingInterlaken

Where the figures come from

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. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingInterlaken
Official languagePutonghuaFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation43 m571 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingInterlaken
City population21,893,0956,123
People per km²1,3341,424
Museums within 10 km833
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km62

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Interlaken 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. 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.