VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Hiroshima 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 Hiroshima for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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. Hiroshima 30, Lucerne 35: Lucerne leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, Lucerne 35: Hiroshima leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, Lucerne 58: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, Lucerne 28: Hiroshima leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, Lucerne 78: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, Lucerne 46: Hiroshima leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, Lucerne 8: Hiroshima leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 50, Lucerne 46: Hiroshima leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hiroshima and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Hiroshima
56match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Lucerne
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 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°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaLucerne

Where the figures come from

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. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaLucerne
Official languageJapaneseFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyYen (JPY)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation3 m436 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaLucerne
City population1,198,02186,234
People per km²1,3242,963
Museums within 10 km1814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hiroshima 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.