VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

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. Ghent 25, Lucerne 35: Lucerne leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Lucerne 35: Ghent leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Lucerne 58: Ghent leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Lucerne 28: Ghent leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 57 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Lucerne 78: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Lucerne 46: Ghent leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Lucerne 8: Ghent leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Ghent
54match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Lucerne
54match

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.

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °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
GhentLucerne

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

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. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentLucerne
Official languageFrench, German, DutchFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation12 m436 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentLucerne
City population272,65786,234
People per km²1,7282,963
Museums within 10 km3014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Lucerne somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.