Buenos Aires or Lucerne?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money and nightlife with your weighting.
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Buenos Aires leads by 33 points.33
| Buenos Aires | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 33 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 0 | 16 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 669 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | — |
Places to eat. Buenos Aires leads by 20 points.20
| Buenos Aires | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 47 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,197 | 269 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 26 | 25 |
Museums & heritage. Buenos Aires leads by 26 points.26
| Buenos Aires | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 40 |
| Museums within 10 km | 148 | 23 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 71 | 13 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 48 | 57 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
Nightlife. Buenos Aires leads by 40 points.40
| Buenos Aires | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 28 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,295 | 202 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 777 | 151 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 60 | 75 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 160 | 11 |
Nature & day trips. Buenos Aires leads by 18 points.18
| Buenos Aires | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 25 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 9 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 1 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 67 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 69 hectares | 29 hectares |
Good for families. Buenos Aires leads by 31 points.31
| Buenos Aires | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 69 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 49 | 15 |
| Park area within 2 km | 69 hectares | 29 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 6 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Buenos Aires leads by 25 points.25
| Buenos Aires | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 35 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 125 | 29 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Buenos Aires leads by 47 points.47
| Buenos Aires | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 82 | 35 |
| Price level global | 45.8 | 110.5 |
| Daily budget | — | €248 |
Year-round weather. Buenos Aires leads by 22 points.22
| Buenos Aires | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | 14.7 °C to 28.5 °C | 3.6 °C to 24.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 50 mm to 135 mm | 60 mm to 128 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). Lucerne: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (41.7 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Buenos Aires | Lucerne |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 13 h 45 m €1,147-1238 2 stops EZE · 28 km | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 49 km |
| MadridMAD | 12 h 30 m €961-982 EZE · 28 km | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 49 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 2 h 40 m €283-314 EZE · 28 km | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 49 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 10 h 40 m no fares EZE · 28 km | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 49 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 15 h 5 m €965-1220 EZE · 28 km | 2 h 45 m €110-133 ZRH · 49 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 14 h 10 m no fares EZE · 28 km | 1 h 25 m €234-276 ZRH · 49 km |
| MiamiMIA, OPF | 9 h 5 m no fares EZE · 28 km | 9 h 55 m no fares ZRH · 49 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 13 h 45 m €1,021-1169 1 stop EZE · 28 km | 1 h 30 m €70-92 ZRH · 49 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 16 h 45 m €1,481-1680 EZE · 28 km | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 49 km |
| ShanghaiPVG, SHA | 23 h 45 m no fares EZE · 28 km | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 49 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Buenos Aires | Lucerne |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish | French, German, Italian, Romansh |
| Currency | Argentine Peso (ARS) | Swiss Franc (CHF) |
| Sockets | CI220 V, 50 Hz | CJ230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-3 | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 117 or 911 | 112 |
| Elevation | 25 m | 436 m |
| Main airport | Ezeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre53 non-stop destinations | Zürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre181 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 16 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Buenos Aires | Lucerne |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 3,121,707 | 86,234 |
| People per km² | 15,355 | 2,963 |
| Museums within 10 km | 75 | 14 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 55 | 46 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Buenos Aires or Lucerne somewhere new.