VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Clearwater 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 Clearwater for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Clearwater 90, Lucerne 35: Clearwater leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Lucerne 35: Clearwater leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Lucerne 58: Lucerne leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Lucerne 28: Clearwater leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Lucerne 66: Clearwater leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Lucerne 8: Clearwater leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Clearwater and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Clearwater
45match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Clearwater in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 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
ClearwaterLucerne

Where the figures come from

Clearwater 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.

Clearwater's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

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. Clearwater: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg / High Point (12.7 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterLucerne
Official language-French, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation9 m436 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterLucerne
City population117,29286,234
People per km²1,1542,963
Museums within 10 km414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Clearwater 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.