VacationSelector
Skiers and chairlifts on the slopes in sunshine, Deer Valley
Deer ValleySkiers and chairlifts on the slopes in sunshine
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Deer Valley by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Deer Valley 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 Deer Valley for

  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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. Deer Valley 10, Lucerne 35: Lucerne leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Deer Valley 38, Lucerne 35: Deer Valley leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Deer Valley 15, Lucerne 58: Lucerne leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Deer Valley 25, Lucerne 28: Lucerne leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Deer Valley 90, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Deer Valley 38, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Deer Valley 60, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Deer Valley 50, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Deer Valley 25, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Deer Valley 4, Lucerne 8: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Deer Valley 30, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Deer Valley 52, Lucerne 46: Deer Valley leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Deer Valley and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Deer Valley
36match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Deer Valley in July

28 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Deer ValleyLucerne

Where the figures come from

Deer Valley's temperatures are measured 82 km from the centre, at Evanston.

Deer Valley's station stands 297 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Deer Valley 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 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. Deer Valley: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Evanston (81.9 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDeer ValleyLucerne
Official language-French, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,474 m436 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)45 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDeer ValleyLucerne
City population-86,234
People per km²-2,963
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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.