VacationSelector
The clock tower in the old town, Kotor
KotorThe clock tower in the old town
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Kotor by Muhammed Fatih Beki, Pexels License; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Kotor or Lucerne?

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 Kotor for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Lucerne’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. Kotor 57, Lucerne 35: Kotor leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Kotor 37, Lucerne 35: Kotor leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Kotor 55, Lucerne 58: Lucerne leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Kotor 30, Lucerne 28: Kotor leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kotor 80, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Kotor 72, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Kotor 36, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Kotor 48, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Kotor 20, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Kotor 57, Lucerne 8: Kotor leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kotor 20, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kotor 24, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kotor and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Kotor
45match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Kotor in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KotorLucerne

Where the figures come from

Kotor 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.

Kotor's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Podgorica-Grad.

Lucerne 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.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kotor: 1991-2020 normals, Tivat (4.2 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKotorLucerne
Official languageMontenegrinFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m436 m
Main airportTivat Airport (TIV)5 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKotorLucerne
City population56286,234
People per km²-2,963
Museums within 10 km314
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kotor or Lucerne somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.