VacationSelector
A heritage tram before the Regent building, Christchurch
ChristchurchA heritage tram before the Regent building
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Christchurch by Bernard Spragg. NZ, CC0; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Christchurch 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 Christchurch for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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. Christchurch 38, Lucerne 35: Christchurch leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Christchurch 45, Lucerne 35: Christchurch leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Christchurch 38, Lucerne 58: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Christchurch 32, Lucerne 28: Christchurch leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Christchurch 84, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Christchurch 45, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Christchurch and Lucerne are level on 66.
Getting around. Christchurch 48, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Christchurch 32, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Christchurch 38, Lucerne 8: Christchurch leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Christchurch 38, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Christchurch 45, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Christchurch and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Christchurch
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Christchurch in July

11 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
9 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
ChristchurchLucerne

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. Christchurch: 1991-2020 normals, Christchurch (8.7 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChristchurchLucerne
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111112
Elevation20 m436 m
Main airportChristchurch International Airport (CHC)10 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureChristchurchLucerne
City population383,20086,234
People per km²1,2982,963
Museums within 10 km1114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Christchurch 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). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.