Geneva or Interlaken?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on good for families and nightlife with your weighting.
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Geneva if you want a city trip: many more places to eat and drink, more museums, more to walk to from the centre, and more for children, including 2 theme parks within reach.
Choose Interlaken if the point of the trip is quiet: a town of about 6,120 people rather than a city, with drier spring and autumn months than Geneva gets.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Geneva and Interlaken are level on 0.
| Geneva | Interlaken | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 43 | 12 |
| Coast distance | 279 km | 713 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Geneva leads by 41 points.41
| Geneva | Interlaken | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 29 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,028 | 118 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 35 | 17 |
Museums & heritage. Geneva leads by 29 points.29
| Geneva | Interlaken | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 23 |
| Museums within 10 km | 35 | 5 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 20 | 2 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 57 | 40 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
Nightlife. Geneva leads by 46 points.46
| Geneva | Interlaken | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 4 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 549 | 42 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 427 | 38 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 78 | 90 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 60 | 3 |
Nature & day trips. Geneva leads by 32 points.32
| Geneva | Interlaken | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 27 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 27 | 19 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 21 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 182 hectares | 5 hectares |
Good for families. Geneva leads by 51 points.51
| Geneva | Interlaken | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 14 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 28 | 11 |
| Park area within 2 km | 182 hectares | 5 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Geneva leads by 34 points.34
| Geneva | Interlaken | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 22 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 99 | 14 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Geneva and Interlaken are level on 35.
| Geneva | Interlaken | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 35 |
| Price level global | 110.5 | 110.5 |
| Daily budget | €248 | €248 |
Year-round weather. Geneva leads by 2 points.2
| Geneva | Interlaken | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 57 |
| Monthly daytime high | 5.1 °C to 26.8 °C | 2.8 °C to 23.6 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 55 mm to 94 mm | 34 mm to 68 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 3 |
Where they differ
Geneva has many times as many restaurants near the centre and a wider range of kitchens, many times as many bars and clubs, and about three times as many tourist attractions near the centre. It has 2 theme parks within reach where Interlaken has none, and far more park space, with 27% of the land around it protected against 19%.
Interlaken is drier: 3 months at 40mm of rain or less, where Geneva has none, and it is a town of about 6,120 rather than a city.
Where they are alike
Neither is a sea destination: both are inland, and neither has a month of water at 21°C or more. Geneva has 43 beaches nearby and Interlaken 12, but swimming is a summer add-on in both.
Their weather follows the same shape: cold winters and warm, not hot, summers, with highs of 5-27°C in Geneva and 3-24°C in Interlaken, and both peak in July.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone whose evenings matter should take Geneva: many times as many places to eat and drink, a wider range of kitchens, and many times as many clubs, most of them near the centre.
Families are better served in Geneva too, with about three times as many attractions near the centre, far more park space and 2 theme parks within reach where Interlaken has none.
Someone who wants a quiet base and dry days should take Interlaken: a town of about 6,120, with 3 months at 40mm of rain or less and spring highs of 9-15°C.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information: the value figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and the €248 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either place. Nothing here says which of the two costs more.
The sunshine figure is missing for Interlaken, since no nearby station records it, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured rather than poor. And Geneva's 43 beaches are lake and river shores in a place where no month reaches 21°C water, so they are a short-season asset.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Geneva: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (5.7 km from centre). Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).
Geneva peaks from June to August with highs of 24-27°C; rain stays at 77-81mm right through summer, and autumn is wetter still, with 94mm in October. May, at 20°C, is the warm-enough alternative.
Interlaken's best stretch is July and August, at 23-24°C, though those are its wettest summer months at 61-62mm. Its distinctive window is spring: March and April are 9-15°C with 34-37mm, and September holds 18°C with 38mm, drier than anything Geneva offers.
Getting there
| Flying from | Geneva | Interlaken |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €91-200 GVA · 5 km | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 100 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 30 m €160-186 GVA · 5 km | 1 h 25 m €234-276 ZRH · 100 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 25 m €156-181 1 stop GVA · 5 km | 2 h 40 m €188-233 ZRH · 100 km |
| PortoOPO | 2 h 10 m €127-171 1 stop GVA · 5 km | 2 h 30 m €139-206 ZRH · 100 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 10 m €104-203 GVA · 5 km | 1 h 15 m €163-196 ZRH · 100 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 50 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 100 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 25 m €65-78 GVA · 5 km | 1 h 40 m €114-151 ZRH · 100 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 25 m €318-351 1 stop GVA · 5 km | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 100 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 0 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 100 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 10 h 20 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 10 h 10 m €710-815 1 stop MXP · 135 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Geneva | Interlaken |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Italian, Romansh | French, German, Italian, Romansh |
| Currency | Swiss Franc (CHF) | Swiss Franc (CHF) |
| Sockets | CJ230 V, 50 Hz | CJ230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 403 m | 571 m |
| Main airport | Geneva International Airport (GVA)5 km from centre140 non-stop destinations | Zürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre181 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Geneva | Interlaken |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 209,061 | 6,123 |
| People per km² | 13,148 | 1,424 |
| Museums within 10 km | 35 | 3 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 80 | 22 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Geneva or Interlaken somewhere new.