VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Bergen 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 Bergen for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • wellness

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. Bergen 20, Lucerne 35: Lucerne leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, Lucerne 35: Bergen leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, Lucerne 58: Lucerne leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, Lucerne 28: Bergen leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Bergen 38, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Bergen 60, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Bergen 74, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, Lucerne 8: Bergen leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bergen and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Bergen
46match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips 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.

Bergen in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 °Csea
18 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BergenLucerne

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. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenLucerne
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 m436 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenLucerne
City population291,18986,234
People per km²3,3392,963
Museums within 10 km3114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.