VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Interlaken or Portland?

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

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Portland for

  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Portland 68: Portland leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Portland 38: Portland leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Portland 52: Portland leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Portland 84: Interlaken leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Portland 58: Interlaken leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Portland 55: Interlaken leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Portland 62: Interlaken leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Portland 52: Portland leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Portland 38: Portland leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Portland 55: Portland leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Portland 42: Portland leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Portland.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on food and drink and live music and the arts 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
15 hdaylight a day

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenPortland

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). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenPortland
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, Romansh-
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation571 m152 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenPortland
City population6,123652,503
People per km²1,4241,736
Museums within 10 km317
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

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