VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

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

Huatulco 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 Huatulco for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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. Huatulco 86, Lucerne 35: Huatulco leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Lucerne 35: Huatulco leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Lucerne 58: Lucerne leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Lucerne 28: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Lucerne 8: Huatulco leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 57 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Lucerne 46: Huatulco leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Huatulco
43match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Huatulco in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
156 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoLucerne

Where the figures come from

Huatulco's temperatures are measured 42 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Huatulco's station stands 177 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Huatulco 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. Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoLucerne
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation220 m436 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoLucerne
City population7,40986,234
People per km²-2,963
Museums within 10 km014
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 Huatulco 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.