VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Cancun 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 Cancun for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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. Cancun 98, Lucerne 35: Cancun leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Lucerne 35: Cancun leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Lucerne 58: Lucerne leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Lucerne 28: Cancun leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Lucerne 66: Cancun leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 61 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Lucerne 8: Cancun leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 49 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Lucerne 46: Cancun leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Lucerne
54match

Wins on getting around 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.

Cancun in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunLucerne

Where the figures come from

Cancun has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunLucerne
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation5 m436 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunLucerne
City population888,79786,234
People per km²-2,963
Museums within 10 km114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Lucerne somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.