Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.
Interlaken or San Sebastian?
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
What lies behind each score is written up on Interlaken’s own page.
Choose San Sebastian for
- food and drink
- culture and sights
- beaches
What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and San Sebastian.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.
Wins on food and drink 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
San Sebastian in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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.
San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.
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 Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Interlaken | San Sebastian |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Italian, Romansh | Spanish |
| 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 | 6 m |
| Main airport | Zürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations | San Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Interlaken | San Sebastian |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 6,123 | 189,866 |
| People per km² | 1,424 | 3,118 |
| Museums within 10 km | 3 | 14 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 3 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | - | 2 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken or San Sebastian somewhere new.