Interlaken or Pisa?
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 good for families and value for money 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 being outdoors: 19% of the surrounding land is protected, lake beaches are within easy reach, and summer highs near 24°C suit long walking days.
Choose Pisa if you want a compact centre covered on foot, museums close together, attractions and theme parks that work with children, and a sea warm enough to swim in for four months of the year.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Pisa leads by 21 points.21
| Interlaken | Pisa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 21 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 713 km | 10 km |
| Water distance | — | 10 km |
Places to eat. Pisa leads by 5 points.5
| Interlaken | Pisa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 34 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 118 | 379 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 17 | 9 |
Museums & heritage. Pisa leads by 32 points.32
| Interlaken | Pisa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 5 | 27 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 2 | 22 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 40 | 81 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 3 |
Nightlife. Pisa leads by 24 points.24
| Interlaken | Pisa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 4 | 28 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 42 | 232 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 38 | 203 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 90 | 88 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 3 | 3 |
Nature & day trips. Pisa leads by 12 points.12
| Interlaken | Pisa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 39 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 9 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 65 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 40 hectares |
Good for families. Pisa leads by 33 points.33
| Interlaken | Pisa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 14 | 47 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 20 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 40 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Pisa leads by 25 points.25
| Interlaken | Pisa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 22 | 47 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 14 | 58 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Pisa leads by 33 points.33
| Interlaken | Pisa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 68 |
| Price level global | 110.5 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €248 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Pisa leads by 13 points.13
| Interlaken | Pisa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 70 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.8 °C to 23.6 °C | 11.4 °C to 30.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 68 mm | 32 mm to 132 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 2 |
Where they differ
Interlaken has 12 beaches nearby, lake rather than sea, and 19% of the surrounding land is protected against 9% around Pisa. Its restaurants are fewer but span a wider range of kitchens.
Pisa has many times as many museums, set tightly around the centre, and 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Interlaken's 2. For families it offers about twice as many attractions near the centre, far more park space, and 2 theme parks where Interlaken has none. Italy's national price level is €155 a day against Switzerland's €248.
Where they are alike
Eating out is a modest affair in both. Neither is a large restaurant city: Pisa has roughly three times as many near the centre, Interlaken a wider spread of kitchens, and in both the choice sits close to the middle.
Both also have protected countryside within day-trip reach and a clear summer peak, warmest in July or August and coolest in January in each case, with workable shoulder months either side.
Which traveller are you?
Families with young children: Pisa. About twice as many attractions near the centre, far more park space and 2 theme parks within reach, plus four months of sea at 21°C or more for swimming.
Anyone travelling for museums and old streets: Pisa again. Many times as many museums, set close together, 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and most of the notable buildings within walking distance of the centre.
Walkers and lake swimmers: Interlaken. 19% of the surrounding land is protected, 12 beaches sit within reach for lake swimming, and summer highs near 24°C suit long days outdoors.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €248 for Switzerland and €155 for Italy, are national price levels for restaurants and hotels, not measurements of either city. A heavily visited town can sit well away from its own country's average, by more than the gap between the two figures, so treat them as country context rather than what your trip will cost.
No weather station near Interlaken records sunshine hours, so that series is missing rather than low, and that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured. Pisa's weather strength also rests on warmth and sea temperature: its driest months are its hottest and busiest, and autumn brings 102-132mm of rain.
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). Pisa: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (3.9 km from centre).
Interlaken is at its best from June to August, with highs of 22-24°C, though July and August bring 61-62mm of rain. September is quieter and drier, 18°C with 38mm, while winter stays at 3-5°C.
Pisa's season opens earlier and lasts longer: May and June at 23-27°C, then July and August at 30°C with just 32-35mm of rain and sea at 25°C. Autumn is the catch, with rainfall climbing from 102mm in September to 132mm in November.
Getting there
| Flying from | Interlaken | Pisa |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 5 m €48-62 PSA · 4 km |
| TiranaTIA | 2 h 5 m no fares BSL · 105 km | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 4 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 15 m €163-196 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 40 m no fares PSA · 4 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 30 m €70-92 ZRH · 100 km | 55 m €136-139 1 stop FLR · 65 km |
| BerlinBER | 1 h 25 m €140-176 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 50 m €119-200 1 stop PSA · 4 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 25 m €234-276 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 55 m €210-262 1 stop PSA · 4 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 55 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 25 m no fares PSA · 4 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 5 m €88-193 PSA · 4 km |
| CataniaCTA | 2 h 10 m no fares BSL · 105 km | 1 h 35 m €55-66 PSA · 4 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 5 h 55 m no fares BLQ · 115 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 | Pisa |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 4 m |
| Main airport | Zürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre181 non-stop destinations | Pisa International Airport (PSA)4 km from centre81 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Interlaken | Pisa |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 6,123 | 88,737 |
| People per km² | 1,424 | 479 |
| Museums within 10 km | 3 | 27 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 29 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken or Pisa somewhere new.