VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • families

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. Galway 28, Lucerne 35: Lucerne leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Lucerne 35: Galway leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Lucerne 58: Lucerne leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Lucerne 28: Galway leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Lucerne 8: Galway leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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
GalwayLucerne

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayLucerne
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
Elevation25 m436 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayLucerne
City population83,45686,234
People per km²1,5632,963
Museums within 10 km414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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