VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Interlaken or Rome?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Rome for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Rome’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, Rome 50: Rome leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Rome 82: Rome leads by 57 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Rome 99: Rome leads by 91 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Rome 58: Rome leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Rome 58: Interlaken leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Rome 92: Rome leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Rome 50: Interlaken leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Rome 60: Interlaken leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Rome 72: Rome leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Rome 38: Rome leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Rome 68: Rome leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken and Rome are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Rome.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Rome
Best match
64match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink 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
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Rome in July

31 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenRome

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.

Rome's sunshine is measured 31 km from the centre, at Vigna Di Valle.

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). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenRome
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshItalian
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation571 m21 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenRome
City population6,1232,748,109
People per km²1,4242,135
Museums within 10 km3178
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km27
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken or Rome 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.