VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Interlaken or York?

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
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose York for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Interlaken leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, York 42: York leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, York 70: York leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, York 36: York leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, York 62: Interlaken leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, York 80: York leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, York 60: Interlaken leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, York 72: Interlaken leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, York 46: York leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, York 38: York leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, York 38: York leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, York 34: Interlaken leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and York.

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 beaches with your weighting.

York
Best match
49match

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
15 hdaylight a day

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenYork

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.

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

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). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenYork
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshEnglish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation571 m25 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenYork
City population6,123208,400
People per km²1,424766
Museums within 10 km324
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22

Where else could you go?

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