VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Interlaken or San Francisco?

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
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose San Francisco for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Interlaken leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 57 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, San Francisco 80: Interlaken leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, San Francisco 72: Interlaken leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, San Francisco 66: Interlaken leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, San Francisco 70: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, San Francisco 14: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 61 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and San Francisco.

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 getting around with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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 seasea
15 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenSan Francisco

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). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenSan Francisco
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 m16 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenSan Francisco
City population6,123873,965
People per km²1,4241,455
Museums within 10 km351
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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