VacationSelector
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Dublin 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 Dublin for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • 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. Dublin 27, Lucerne 35: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Dublin 50, Lucerne 35: Dublin leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Dublin 64, Lucerne 58: Dublin leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Dublin 62, Lucerne 28: Dublin leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dublin 70, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Dublin 72, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Dublin 57, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Dublin 66, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Dublin 54, Lucerne 46: Dublin leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Dublin 20, Lucerne 8: Dublin leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dublin 65, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dublin 25, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dublin and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Dublin
53match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Lucerne
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 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
DublinLucerne

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. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDublinLucerne
Official languageEnglish, IrishFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation20 m436 m
Main airportDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDublinLucerne
City population592,71386,234
People per km²5,1542,963
Museums within 10 km4014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dublin 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.