VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Interlaken or Santiago?

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

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Santiago for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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 12: Interlaken leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Santiago 83: Interlaken leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Santiago 70: Interlaken leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Santiago 57: Interlaken leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Santiago 68: Interlaken leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Santiago 58: Santiago leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Santiago 55: Santiago leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Santiago 37: Interlaken leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Santiago.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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
15 hdaylight a day

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenSantiago

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: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenSantiago
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSpanish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation571 m575 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenSantiago
City population6,1236,257,516
People per km²1,4247,468
Museums within 10 km354
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

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