VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Interlaken for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • beaches

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. Edinburgh 22, Interlaken 30: Interlaken leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Interlaken 25: Edinburgh leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Interlaken 8: Edinburgh leads by 67 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Interlaken 15: Edinburgh leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Interlaken 97: Interlaken leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Interlaken 78: Interlaken leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Interlaken 72: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Interlaken 80: Interlaken leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Interlaken 22: Edinburgh leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Interlaken 8: Edinburgh leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Interlaken 15: Edinburgh leads by 57 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Interlaken 40: Interlaken leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Interlaken.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Interlaken
41match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghInterlaken

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

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. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghInterlaken
Official languageEnglishFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m571 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghInterlaken
City population488,0506,123
People per km²1,8841,424
Museums within 10 km323
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Edinburgh 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). 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.