Interlaken or Milan?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
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 Milan if you want evenings out, museums and a walkable centre with plenty in it, plus theme parks and park space for children and a much wider choice of restaurants.
Choose Interlaken if you want a small base with 12 beaches nearby and drier spells in spring and early autumn, and if nightlife and crowds are not part of the plan.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Interlaken and Milan are level on 0.
| Interlaken | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 4 |
| Coast distance | 713 km | 120 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Milan leads by 41 points.41
| Interlaken | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 70 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 118 | 1,991 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 17 | 20 |
Museums & heritage. Milan leads by 51 points.51
| Interlaken | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 74 |
| Museums within 10 km | 5 | 87 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 2 | 55 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 40 | 63 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
Nightlife. Milan leads by 71 points.71
| Interlaken | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 4 | 75 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 42 | 2,215 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 38 | 961 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 90 | 43 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 3 | 70 |
Nature & day trips. Milan leads by 38 points.38
| Interlaken | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 65 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 30 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 11 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 102 hectares |
Good for families. Milan leads by 63 points.63
| Interlaken | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 14 | 77 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 76 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 102 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 5 |
Sights concentration. Milan leads by 52 points.52
| Interlaken | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 22 | 74 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 14 | 266 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Milan leads by 33 points.33
| Interlaken | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 68 |
| Price level global | 110.5 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €248 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Milan leads by 7 points.7
| Interlaken | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.8 °C to 23.6 °C | 7 °C to 28.6 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 68 mm | 44 mm to 127 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 0 |
Where they differ
Interlaken has 12 beaches nearby against Milan's 4, and three months at 40mm of rain or less, where Milan has none. It is a town of about 6,000 people, with what it offers inside a short walk.
Milan has far more bars and nightclubs, though only about half sit near the centre, and many times as many notable places within walking distance. For children there are far more attractions and much more park space near the centre, plus 5 theme parks within reach where Interlaken has none.
Where they are alike
Neither is a place for sea swimming: neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so water time is a summer extra rather than a reason to book either.
Their weather runs on the same calendar, warmest in July and coldest in January, with the same rise through spring and fall-off in November. On value, the only figures available are national estimates for their countries, which say nothing about either city on its own.
Which traveller are you?
A traveller after evenings out and gallery days should take Milan: far more bars and clubs, many times as many museums, and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Interlaken's 2.
Families are better served in Milan as well, with 5 theme parks within reach where Interlaken has none, many more attractions near the centre and much more park space for breaking up a day.
Anyone wanting a quiet base takes Interlaken, a town of about 6,000 people with 12 beaches nearby and drier shoulder weeks, at highs of 15-18°C, for time spent outdoors.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €248 and €155, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of Interlaken or Milan. A small town or a large city can sit well away from its own country's average, by more than the gap between these two figures, so neither can be called the cheaper trip on this evidence.
No weather station near Interlaken records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low. Its month-by-month picture rests on temperature and rainfall alone, and that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured for one of the two.
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). Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Novara / Cameri (41.2 km from centre).
Interlaken is at its best from June to August, when highs reach 22-24°C. Its driest weeks fall either side of summer, 34-38mm in spring and early autumn, with highs of 15-18°C that suit long days outdoors.
Milan runs warmer, up to 29°C, and July is its driest summer month at 57mm. Autumn is the catch there, 113-127mm in the wettest stretch, so a warm afternoon and a dry one are not the same thing. Milan also holds up better in winter, 7°C against Interlaken's 3°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Interlaken | Milan |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 45 m €48-103 MXP · 40 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €114-151 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 30 m €34-53 MXP · 40 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 15 m €163-196 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 20 m €46-63 MXP · 40 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 0 m €63-91 MXP · 40 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 8 h 15 m €542-635 1 stop MXP · 40 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 45 m €110-133 ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 40 m €140-309 MXP · 40 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 30 m €70-92 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 15 m €116-135 LIN · 7 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 6 h 10 m €375-563 MXP · 40 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 11 h 20 m no fares MXP · 40 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 11 h 50 m €1,114-1167 2 stops MXP · 40 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 | Milan |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Italian, Romansh | Italian |
| Currency | Swiss Franc (CHF) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CJ230 V, 50 Hz | CFL230 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 | 138 m |
| Main airport | Zürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre181 non-stop destinations | Milan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre203 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Interlaken | Milan |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 6,123 | 1,354,196 |
| People per km² | 1,424 | 7,453 |
| Museums within 10 km | 3 | 87 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 79 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken or Milan somewhere new.