VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bergen 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 Bergen for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Interlaken for

  • day trips
  • families
  • beaches

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. Bergen 20, Interlaken 30: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, Interlaken 25: Bergen leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, Interlaken 8: Bergen leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, Interlaken 15: Bergen leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, Interlaken 97: Interlaken leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Bergen 38, Interlaken 78: Interlaken leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Bergen 60, Interlaken 72: Interlaken leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Bergen 74, Interlaken 80: Interlaken leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, Interlaken 22: Bergen leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, Interlaken 8: Bergen leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, Interlaken 15: Bergen leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, Interlaken 40: Interlaken leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bergen and Interlaken.

Your match

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

Bergen
Best match
46match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Interlaken
41match

Wins on day trips 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.

Bergen in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
15 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Interlaken in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BergenInterlaken

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. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenInterlaken
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110112
Elevation5 m571 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenInterlaken
City population291,1896,123
People per km²3,3391,424
Museums within 10 km313
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bergen 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.