VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Faro 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 Faro for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Interlaken for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • day trips

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. Faro 74, Interlaken 30: Faro leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Interlaken 25: Faro leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Interlaken 8: Faro leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Interlaken 15: Faro leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Interlaken 97: Interlaken leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Interlaken 78: Interlaken leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Interlaken 72: Interlaken leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Interlaken 80: Interlaken leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Interlaken 22: Faro leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, Interlaken 8: Faro leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Interlaken 15: Faro leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Interlaken 40: Interlaken leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro and Interlaken.

Your match

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

Faro
Best match
49match

Wins on prices and beaches 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.

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
FaroInterlaken

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. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroInterlaken
Official languagePortugueseFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m571 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroInterlaken
City population64,5606,123
People per km²3191,424
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

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