VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Interlaken or Santiago de Compostela?

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 Santiago de Compostela for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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, Santiago de Compostela 32: Santiago de Compostela leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Santiago de Compostela 68: Santiago de Compostela leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Santiago de Compostela 45: Santiago de Compostela leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Santiago de Compostela 62: Interlaken leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Santiago de Compostela 72: Interlaken leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Santiago de Compostela 42: Interlaken leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Santiago de Compostela 70: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Santiago de Compostela 35: Santiago de Compostela leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Santiago de Compostela 64: Santiago de Compostela leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Santiago de Compostela 40: Santiago de Compostela leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Santiago de Compostela 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Santiago de Compostela.

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.

Santiago de Compostela
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenSantiago de Compostela

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). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenSantiago de Compostela
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSpanish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation571 m260 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenSantiago de Compostela
City population6,123100,965
People per km²1,424459
Museums within 10 km36
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Santiago de Compostela 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.