VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Colombo or Interlaken?

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 Colombo for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Interlaken for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Interlaken’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. Colombo 55, Interlaken 30: Colombo leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Interlaken 25: Colombo leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Interlaken 8: Colombo leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Interlaken 15: Colombo leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Interlaken 97: Interlaken leads by 65 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Interlaken 78: Interlaken leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Interlaken 72: Interlaken leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Interlaken 80: Interlaken leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Interlaken 22: Colombo leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Interlaken 8: Colombo leads by 70 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Interlaken 15: Colombo leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Interlaken 40: Colombo leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Interlaken.

Your match

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

Colombo
Best match
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Interlaken
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboInterlaken

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboInterlaken
Official languageTamil, SinhalaFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation1 m571 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboInterlaken
City population647,5576,123
People per km²17,3611,424
Museums within 10 km103
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Colombo or Interlaken 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.