VacationSelector
The Three Graces fountain, Place de la Bourse, Bordeaux
BordeauxThe Three Graces fountain, Place de la Bourse
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Bordeaux by Gzen92, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Bordeaux 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 Bordeaux for

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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. Bordeaux 50, Lucerne 35: Bordeaux leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Bordeaux 78, Lucerne 35: Bordeaux leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Bordeaux 68, Lucerne 58: Bordeaux leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Bordeaux 50, Lucerne 28: Bordeaux leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bordeaux 58, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Bordeaux and Lucerne are level on 78.
Good for families. Bordeaux 57, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Bordeaux 76, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Bordeaux 56, Lucerne 46: Bordeaux leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Bordeaux 42, Lucerne 8: Bordeaux leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bordeaux 55, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bordeaux 40, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bordeaux and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Bordeaux
Best match
59match

Wins on food and drink and prices with your weighting.

Lucerne
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bordeaux in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
47 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BordeauxLucerne

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. Bordeaux: 1991-2020 normals, Bordeaux / Merignac (9.5 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBordeauxLucerne
Official languageFrenchFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1 m436 m
Main airportBordeaux–Mérignac Airport (BOD)11 km from centre95 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBordeauxLucerne
City population267,99186,234
People per km²5,4252,963
Museums within 10 km1814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bordeaux 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.