VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Interlaken or Istanbul?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Istanbul for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Istanbul’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, Istanbul 45: Istanbul leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Istanbul 87: Istanbul leads by 62 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Istanbul 90: Istanbul leads by 82 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Istanbul 77: Istanbul leads by 62 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Istanbul 52: Interlaken leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Istanbul 55: Interlaken leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Istanbul 55: Interlaken leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Istanbul 62: Interlaken leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Istanbul 86: Istanbul leads by 64 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Istanbul 60: Istanbul leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Istanbul 62: Istanbul leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Istanbul 75: Istanbul leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Istanbul.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenIstanbul

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.

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). Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenIstanbul
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshTurkish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112112
Elevation571 m100 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenIstanbul
City population6,12315,655,924
People per km²1,4242,930
Museums within 10 km373
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken or Istanbul 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. 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.