Interlaken or Salzburg?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage 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 Interlaken if the trip is built around the outdoors: a larger share of protected land around it, 12 beaches nearby for lake swimming, and the drier of the two weather patterns.
Choose Salzburg if you want a town to walk around in the evening: many times as many museums, a much wider choice of restaurants and bars, and 4 theme parks within reach if you are bringing children.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Interlaken and Salzburg are level on 0.
| Interlaken | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 9 |
| Coast distance | 713 km | 653 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Salzburg leads by 20 points.20
| Interlaken | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 49 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 118 | 348 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 17 | 23 |
Museums & heritage. Salzburg leads by 37 points.37
| Interlaken | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 60 |
| Museums within 10 km | 5 | 42 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 2 | 27 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 40 | 64 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 3 |
Nightlife. Salzburg leads by 32 points.32
| Interlaken | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 4 | 36 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 42 | 294 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 38 | 241 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 90 | 82 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 3 | 16 |
Nature & day trips. Interlaken and Salzburg are level on 27.
| Interlaken | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 27 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 39 hectares |
Good for families. Salzburg leads by 34 points.34
| Interlaken | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 14 | 48 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 17 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 39 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Salzburg leads by 24 points.24
| Interlaken | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 22 | 46 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 14 | 54 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Salzburg leads by 24 points.24
| Interlaken | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 59 |
| Price level global | 110.5 | 76.9 |
| Daily budget | €248 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Interlaken leads by 3 points.3
| Interlaken | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 54 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.8 °C to 23.6 °C | 3.4 °C to 24.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 68 mm | 47 mm to 168 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 0 |
Where they differ
Interlaken sits in more protected country: 19% of the land around it is protected against 6% around Salzburg, and it has 3 months at 40mm of rain or less where Salzburg has none.
Salzburg has many times as many museums, and many times as many bars and clubs, with its notable places packed about three times as tightly around the centre. Families get about twice as many attractions near the centre, far more park space, and 4 theme parks within reach where Interlaken has none.
Where they are alike
Day trips work out much the same either way. The land around Interlaken is more heavily protected, Salzburg has far more park space near the centre, and the two end up with a comparable amount to do beyond the town itself.
Beaches are no reason to pick either: 12 lie near Interlaken and 9 near Salzburg, but neither has a month with sea at 21°C or more. Weather across the year is close as well, highs of 3-24°C against 3-25°C.
Which traveller are you?
Someone who wants museums and heritage should take Salzburg: many times as many museums as Interlaken, more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and sights about three times as tightly packed around the centre, so a day on foot covers more.
Families are better served in Salzburg as well: about twice as many attractions near the centre, far more park space, and 4 theme parks within reach where Interlaken has none, plus a wider choice of places to eat.
Anyone planning to be outdoors most days should choose Interlaken, where 19% of the surrounding land is protected and the drier months make long days out more dependable, with lakeside beaches close by.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €248 and €160, are national estimates for the two countries, covering restaurant and hotel price levels rather than either city itself. A heavily visited town can sit well above its own country average, by more than the gap between these two figures, so read them as country context only.
No weather station near Interlaken records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and its monthly picture rests on temperature and rainfall alone. Note too that Interlaken's warmest months, July and August, are also among its wettest.
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). Salzburg: 1991-2020 normals, Salzburg (3.4 km from centre).
Interlaken is at its best from June to September, with highs of 22-24°C in high summer and rainfall through that window between 38mm and 62mm. September stands out: still 18°C, and the driest of those four months.
Salzburg is warmer at the peak, 25°C in July and August, but those are also its wettest months at 159-167mm. Its shoulders serve better: April at 16°C and 80mm, October at 15°C and 90mm, and February, its driest month, at 47mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Interlaken | Salzburg |
|---|---|---|
| MadridMAD | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 25 m €227-312 1 stop MUC · 112 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 55 m €186-283 SZG · 3 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €114-151 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 55 m €166-216 MUC · 112 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 15 m €163-196 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 30 m €183-250 MUC · 112 km |
| AthensATH | 2 h 35 m €213-216 ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 25 m no fares MUC · 112 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 8 h 15 m no fares MUC · 112 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 40 m €188-233 ZRH · 100 km | 3 h 0 m €253-306 1 stop MUC · 112 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 11 h 0 m no fares MUC · 112 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 5 h 55 m no fares SZG · 3 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 12 h 15 m no fares MUC · 112 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 2026-09 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 | Salzburg |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Italian, Romansh | German, Austrian Sign Language |
| Currency | Swiss Franc (CHF) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CJ230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 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 | 424 m |
| Main airport | Zürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre181 non-stop destinations | Salzburg Airport (SZG)3 km from centre62 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 16 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Interlaken | Salzburg |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 6,123 | 155,021 |
| People per km² | 1,424 | 2,360 |
| Museums within 10 km | 3 | 38 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 50 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken or Salzburg somewhere new.