Interlaken or Montpellier?
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 places to eat and nightlife 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 mountains and water: more protected land around it, 12 beaches nearby, and a town small enough to cross on foot.
Choose Montpellier if you want a city day and a beach day in the same week: far more places to eat and drink, sea at 22°C in August, and milder winters at 12-13°C.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Montpellier leads by 32 points.32
| Interlaken | Montpellier | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 32 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 2 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 8 |
| Coast distance | 713 km | 9 km |
| Water distance | — | 9 km |
Places to eat. Montpellier leads by 36 points.36
| Interlaken | Montpellier | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 65 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 118 | 737 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 17 | 34 |
Museums & heritage. Montpellier leads by 3 points.3
| Interlaken | Montpellier | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 26 |
| Museums within 10 km | 5 | 14 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 2 | 3 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 40 | 21 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
Nightlife. Montpellier leads by 34 points.34
| Interlaken | Montpellier | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 4 | 38 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 42 | 318 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 38 | 265 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 90 | 83 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 3 | 25 |
Nature & day trips. Montpellier leads by 16 points.16
| Interlaken | Montpellier | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 43 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 15 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 10 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 70 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 55 hectares |
Good for families. Montpellier leads by 30 points.30
| Interlaken | Montpellier | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 14 | 44 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 8 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 55 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 7 |
Sights concentration. Montpellier leads by 16 points.16
| Interlaken | Montpellier | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 22 | 38 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 14 | 35 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Montpellier leads by 27 points.27
| Interlaken | Montpellier | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 62 |
| Price level global | 110.5 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €248 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Montpellier leads by 17 points.17
| Interlaken | Montpellier | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 74 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.8 °C to 23.6 °C | 12 °C to 29.6 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 68 mm | 17 mm to 93 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 5 |
Where they differ
Interlaken has the edge outdoors: 12 beaches nearby against Montpellier's 8, and 19% of the surrounding land is protected against 15%. It also has slightly more tourist attractions near the centre.
Montpellier has many times as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens, plus many times as many bars and clubs, most of them walkable. Its sea is the swimmable one, reaching 22°C in August, and 7 theme parks lie within reach.
Where they are alike
Museums and heritage is where they land closest. Neither is a heavyweight, but both have 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and Interlaken's handful of museums sits tightly around the centre.
The other close axes are the walkable centres and the countryside beyond them: both keep their sights clustered rather than scattered, and both have similar shares of protected land nearby, though Montpellier holds far more park space near the centre.
Which traveller are you?
Walkers and swimmers who want lakes rather than streets: Interlaken. A larger share of protected land around it, 12 beaches within reach and summer highs of 22-24°C make it the better base for days spent outdoors.
Anyone travelling for the table and the evening: Montpellier, with many times as many restaurants near the centre, a much wider range of kitchens, and many times as many bars and clubs, most within walking distance.
Families: Montpellier, on 7 theme parks within reach, far more park space near the centre and two months of sea above 21°C. Interlaken counters with slightly more attractions close to the centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €248 and €160, are national estimates for the two countries, price levels for restaurants and hotels rather than measurements of either city. A small resort town and a large city can each sit far from their national average, by more than the gap between the two figures.
No sunshine figure exists for Interlaken: no nearby station records it, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured rather than poor, and its monthly picture rests on temperature and rainfall alone. Its 12 beaches, meanwhile, come with no month of water at 21°C or more.
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). Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre).
Interlaken is at its best from June to September, with highs of 22-24°C in June, July and August. July and August are also its wettest summer months at 61-62mm; September is drier at 38mm and still 18°C.
Montpellier holds a longer season, from May at 23°C to September at 25°C, with July at 30°C and just 17mm of rain, and sea at 22°C in August. September and October turn wet, 88mm and 93mm. Winter stays near 12-13°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Interlaken | Montpellier |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 15 m €163-196 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 25 m no fares MPL · 8 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 45 m no fares MPL · 8 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 35 m no fares MRS · 109 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 40 m €188-233 ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 10 m €136-184 1 stop MRS · 109 km |
| BordeauxBOD | 1 h 30 m no fares BSL · 105 km | 1 h 15 m no fares MRS · 109 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 35 m no fares MRS · 109 km |
| BastiaBIA | 1 h 15 m no fares GVA · 143 km | 1 h 5 m no fares MRS · 109 km |
| TunisTUN | 1 h 50 m no fares MXP · 135 km | 1 h 40 m no fares MRS · 109 km |
| MontrealYUL, YHU, YMX | 7 h 45 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 7 h 45 m no fares MRS · 109 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 10 h 55 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 11 h 35 m no fares MRS · 109 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 2026-09, 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 | Montpellier |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Italian, Romansh | French |
| Currency | Swiss Franc (CHF) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CJ230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 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 | 7 m |
| Main airport | Zürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre181 non-stop destinations | Montpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre36 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Interlaken | Montpellier |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 6,123 | 310,240 |
| People per km² | 1,424 | 5,452 |
| Museums within 10 km | 3 | 14 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 65 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | 2 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken or Montpellier somewhere new.