VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Interlaken or Sydney?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 52 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Sydney 85: Interlaken leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Sydney 50: Interlaken leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Sydney 75: Interlaken leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Sydney 22: Sydney leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Sydney.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenSydney

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). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenSydney
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshEnglish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation571 m6 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenSydney
City population6,1235,450,496
People per km²1,424449
Museums within 10 km338
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

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