Interlaken or Lucerne?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on year-round weather and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and good for families with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Interlaken if the trip is about the mountains: more protected land around it, 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and the drier of the two summers.
Choose Lucerne if you want a town for the evenings and for wet days: many more restaurants, bars and museums, more for children including a theme park, and more to see on foot in the centre.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Interlaken and Lucerne are level on 0.
| Interlaken | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 16 |
| Coast distance | 713 km | 669 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Lucerne leads by 18 points.18
| Interlaken | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 47 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 118 | 269 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 17 | 25 |
Museums & heritage. Lucerne leads by 17 points.17
| Interlaken | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 40 |
| Museums within 10 km | 5 | 23 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 2 | 13 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 40 | 57 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
Nightlife. Lucerne leads by 24 points.24
| Interlaken | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 4 | 28 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 42 | 202 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 38 | 151 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 90 | 75 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 3 | 11 |
Nature & day trips. Interlaken leads by 2 points.2
| Interlaken | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 25 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 29 hectares |
Good for families. Lucerne leads by 24 points.24
| Interlaken | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 14 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 15 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 29 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Lucerne leads by 13 points.13
| Interlaken | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 22 | 35 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 14 | 29 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Interlaken and Lucerne are level on 35.
| Interlaken | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 35 |
| Price level global | 110.5 | 110.5 |
| Daily budget | €248 | €248 |
Year-round weather. Interlaken leads by 4 points.4
| Interlaken | Lucerne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.8 °C to 23.6 °C | 3.6 °C to 24.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 68 mm | 60 mm to 128 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 0 |
Where they differ
Interlaken is the stronger outdoor base: 19% of the land around it is protected against 7% around Lucerne, and 2 UNESCO-listed places lie within day-trip reach against Lucerne's 1. It is drier, with 3 months at 40mm or less; Lucerne has none.
Lucerne is the better town: roughly double the restaurants near the centre and a wider range of kitchens, many times as many museums and places to drink, about three times the nightclubs, plus a theme park, more park space and twice as many notable places within walking distance.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. Both have beaches nearby, 16 around Lucerne and 12 around Interlaken, but neither has a month with water at 21°C or more, so a swim is a brief summer option rather than a reason to choose either.
They are close on day trips and on the year as a whole: both run daytime highs of about 3-24°C, both peak in July, and both put mountain country within reach of the town.
Which traveller are you?
Walkers and mountain day-trippers: Interlaken. 19% of the surrounding land is protected against 7%, two UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach, and its summer months are the drier of the two for long days out.
Anyone travelling for food, museums and evenings out: Lucerne. Roughly double the restaurants near the centre, a wider range of kitchens, many times the museums and places to drink, and most of the nightlife walkable from the middle.
Families with children: Lucerne again. It has a theme park within reach where Interlaken has none, far more park space near the centre, and somewhat more attractions close in, all reachable on foot.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information: the figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction. The daily budget of €248 is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city, so read it as a guide to the country, not a difference between them.
Sunshine is missing for Interlaken. No nearby station records it, so its monthly picture rests on temperature and rainfall alone, and that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured. Rainfall totals also say nothing about how the rain arrives, and the beaches counted near both come with no month of water warm enough for easy swimming.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Lucerne: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (41.7 km from centre).
Interlaken suits June to August, highs of 22-24°C, with rain near 61mm at the peak of summer. September is the quieter choice at 18°C and 38mm, the driest of its warm months.
Lucerne is just as warm across the same summer months at 24°C, but rain there runs near 126mm then, and no month of its year drops to 40mm. Its driest stretch, February and March, brings highs of only 5-10°C, so the dry weeks and the warm ones do not coincide.
Getting there
| Flying from | Interlaken | Lucerne |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 49 km |
| BerlinBER | 1 h 25 m €140-176 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 25 m €140-176 ZRH · 49 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 45 m €110-133 ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 45 m €110-133 ZRH · 49 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 25 m €234-276 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 25 m €234-276 ZRH · 49 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 49 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 25 m €174-215 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 25 m €174-215 1 stop ZRH · 49 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 49 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 49 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 49 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 49 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Interlaken | Lucerne |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Italian, Romansh | French, German, Italian, Romansh |
| Currency | Swiss Franc (CHF) | Swiss Franc (CHF) |
| Sockets | CJ230 V, 50 Hz | CJ230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 571 m | 436 m |
| Main airport | Zürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre181 non-stop destinations | Zürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre181 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Interlaken | Lucerne |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 6,123 | 86,234 |
| People per km² | 1,424 | 2,963 |
| Museums within 10 km | 3 | 14 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 46 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken or Lucerne somewhere new.