Interlaken or Zurich?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and places to eat with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Interlaken if you would rather be outdoors: more protected land around it, 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and drier summer months under midsummer highs of 24°C.
Choose Zurich if the trip is built around eating out, museums and nights that run late, with most of it inside a walkable centre and 2 theme parks within reach for children.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Interlaken and Zurich are level on 0.
| Interlaken | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 23 |
| Coast distance | 713 km | 632 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Zurich leads by 38 points.38
| Interlaken | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 67 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 118 | 974 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 17 | 30 |
Museums & heritage. Zurich leads by 33 points.33
| Interlaken | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 56 |
| Museums within 10 km | 5 | 76 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 2 | 37 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 40 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
Nightlife. Zurich leads by 50 points.50
| Interlaken | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 4 | 54 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 42 | 676 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 38 | 553 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 90 | 82 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 3 | 74 |
Nature & day trips. Zurich leads by 10 points.10
| Interlaken | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 9 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 48 hectares |
Good for families. Zurich leads by 22 points.22
| Interlaken | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 14 | 36 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 8 |
| Park area within 2 km | 5 hectares | 48 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Zurich leads by 37 points.37
| Interlaken | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 22 | 59 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 14 | 119 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Interlaken and Zurich are level on 35.
| Interlaken | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 35 |
| Price level global | 110.5 | 110.5 |
| Daily budget | €248 | €248 |
Year-round weather. Interlaken leads by 4 points.4
| Interlaken | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.8 °C to 23.6 °C | 3.6 °C to 24.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 68 mm | 60 mm to 128 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 0 |
Where they differ
Interlaken is the more outdoor-facing of the two: 19% of the land around it is protected against 16% around Zurich, it has 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach where Zurich has 1, and slightly more tourist attractions sit near its centre.
Zurich has many times as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider spread of kitchens, many times as many museums, and far more bars and clubs, most of them central. Its notable sights also cluster within walking distance in a way Interlaken's do not.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination in the sea sense: no month at either reaches a sea temperature of 21°C or more. Both have lake beaches, 23 near Zurich and 12 near Interlaken, though bathing is a summer matter rather than a reason to choose either.
Their weather years run close too, both holding daytime highs of about 3-24°C and peaking in July. Both also have protected country within day-trip reach.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone whose trip revolves around dinner and what follows it should take Zurich: many times as many restaurants and kitchens near the centre, far more bars and clubs, and museums in numbers Interlaken cannot match.
Walkers and day-trippers are better served by Interlaken: a larger share of protected land around it, 2 UNESCO-listed places within reach against 1, and three months of the year at 40mm of rain or less.
Families lean to Zurich, which has far more park space near the centre and 2 theme parks within reach where Interlaken has none, though Interlaken keeps slightly more attractions close to its own centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information: the price level is a national figure, identical for both by construction, so nothing in it marks either city as the cheaper trip. The €248 daily budget beside it is one national estimate, not a measurement of either city.
Sunshine is missing for Interlaken, as no nearby station records it, so its monthly picture rests on temperature and rainfall alone and that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured rather than weak. The beach counts, 23 and 12, are lake shores in a country with no warm sea month, describing short summer swimming rather than a beach holiday.
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). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).
Interlaken peaks from June to September, with midsummer highs of 22-24°C and relatively dry months: July takes 62mm and September 38mm. Spring is drier still, 34mm in April, though highs reach only 15°C.
Zurich is at its strongest in July and August at 24°C, but summer is the wet half of its year, 119-126mm a month from May to August against September's 87mm. Both close down in winter, with January highs of 3-4°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Interlaken | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 9 km |
| BerlinBER | 1 h 25 m €140-176 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 25 m €140-176 ZRH · 9 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 45 m €110-133 ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 45 m €110-133 ZRH · 9 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 25 m €234-276 ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 25 m €234-276 ZRH · 9 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 25 m €174-215 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 1 h 25 m €174-215 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 100 km | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 100 km | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 9 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 | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Italian, Romansh | French, German, Italian, Romansh |
| Currency | Swiss Franc (CHF) | Swiss Franc (CHF) |
| Sockets | CJ230 V, 50 Hz | CJ230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 571 m | 408 m |
| Main airport | Zürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre181 non-stop destinations | Zürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre181 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Interlaken | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 6,123 | 452,421 |
| People per km² | 1,424 | 5,147 |
| Museums within 10 km | 3 | 63 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 78 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken or Zurich somewhere new.