VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

Interlaken or Seattle?

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

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Seattle for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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 and Seattle are level on 30.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Seattle 66: Seattle leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Seattle 50: Seattle leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Seattle 87: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Seattle 55: Interlaken leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Seattle 64: Interlaken leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Seattle 60: Interlaken leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Seattle 52: Seattle leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Seattle 22: Seattle leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 55 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken and Seattle are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Seattle.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Seattle
Best match
54match

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

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenSeattle

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). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenSeattle
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 m40 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenSeattle
City population6,123737,015
People per km²1,4241,996
Museums within 10 km327
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 Seattle 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.