VacationSelector
Palms on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu
HonoluluPalms on Waikiki Beach
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Honolulu by Jess Loiterton, Pexels License; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Honolulu 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 Honolulu for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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. Honolulu 91, Lucerne 35: Honolulu leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Honolulu 70, Lucerne 35: Honolulu leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Honolulu 55, Lucerne 58: Lucerne leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Honolulu 45, Lucerne 28: Honolulu leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Honolulu 88, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Honolulu 38, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Honolulu 80, Lucerne 66: Honolulu leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Honolulu 52, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Honolulu 60, Lucerne 46: Honolulu leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Honolulu 15, Lucerne 8: Honolulu leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Honolulu 40, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Honolulu 50, Lucerne 46: Honolulu leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Honolulu and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Honolulu
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Lucerne
54match

Wins on day trips 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.

Honolulu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
13 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
HonoluluLucerne

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. Honolulu: 1991-2020 normals, Honolulu International Airport (10.1 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHonoluluLucerne
Official language-French, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-10UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation12 m436 m
Main airportDaniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)7 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHonoluluLucerne
City population350,96486,234
People per km²1,9812,963
Museums within 10 km1214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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