VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
Inverness Castle above the River Ness, Inverness
InvernessInverness Castle above the River Ness

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Inverness by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Interlaken or Inverness?

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 Interlaken for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Inverness for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Inverness’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. Interlaken 30, Inverness 20: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Inverness 36: Inverness leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Inverness 27: Inverness leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Inverness 28: Inverness leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Inverness 84: Interlaken leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Inverness 56: Interlaken leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Inverness 55: Interlaken leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Inverness 48: Interlaken leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Inverness 30: Inverness leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Inverness 38: Inverness leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Inverness 33: Inverness leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Inverness 30: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Inverness.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Interlaken
41match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Inverness
40match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Inverness in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
69 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenInverness

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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.

Inverness 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.

Inverness's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Kinloss.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Inverness: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Inverness / Dalcross (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenInverness
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshEnglish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation571 m7 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsInverness Airport (INV)12 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenInverness
City population6,12347,380
People per km²1,4242,289
Museums within 10 km33
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken or Inverness 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.