Interlaken or Sofia?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
Wins on value for money and nightlife with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Interlaken and Sofia are level on 0.
| Interlaken | Sofia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 713 km | 214 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Sofia leads by 35 points.35
| Interlaken | Sofia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 64 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 118 | 845 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 17 | 28 |
Museums & heritage. Sofia leads by 34 points.34
| Interlaken | Sofia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 57 |
| Museums within 10 km | 5 | 51 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 2 | 40 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 40 | 78 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
Nightlife. Sofia leads by 57 points.57
| Interlaken | Sofia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 4 | 61 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 42 | 958 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 38 | 608 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 90 | 63 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 3 | 102 |
Nature & day trips. Sofia leads by 24 points.24
| Interlaken | Sofia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 51 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 12 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 4 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 229 hectares |
Good for families. Sofia leads by 41 points.41
| Interlaken | Sofia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 14 | 55 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 20 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 229 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Sofia leads by 35 points.35
| Interlaken | Sofia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 22 | 57 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 14 | 104 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Sofia leads by 64 points.64
| Interlaken | Sofia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 99 |
| Price level global | 110.5 | 21.4 |
| Daily budget | €248 | €77 |
Year-round weather. Sofia leads by 7 points.7
| Interlaken | Sofia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.8 °C to 23.6 °C | 3.5 °C to 28.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 68 mm | 36 mm to 78 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 3 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Interlaken | Sofia |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 100 km | 3 h 5 m €70-85 1 stop SOF · 8 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 25 m €174-215 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 35 m €74-99 SOF · 8 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 20 m €130-210 1 stop SOF · 8 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 45 m €110-133 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 15 m €116-123 SOF · 8 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €114-151 ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 45 m €88-145 1 stop SOF · 8 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 3 h 20 m €114-128 SOF · 8 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 30 m €70-92 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 45 m €55-68 SOF · 8 km |
| BerlinBER | 1 h 25 m €140-176 ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 10 m €76-204 1 stop SOF · 8 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 4 h 45 m €298-357 1 stop SOF · 8 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 10 h 0 m €614-660 2 stops SOF · 8 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Interlaken | Sofia |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Italian, Romansh | Bulgarian |
| 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+2, UTC+3 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 571 m | 560 m |
| Main airport | Zürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre181 non-stop destinations | Sofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre94 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 15 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Interlaken | Sofia |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 6,123 | 1,213,134 |
| People per km² | 1,424 | 2,466 |
| Museums within 10 km | 3 | 42 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 51 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken or Sofia somewhere new.