VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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. Lima 42, Lucerne 35: Lima leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Lucerne 35: Lima leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Lucerne 58: Lima leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Lucerne 28: Lima leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Lucerne 46: Lima leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, Lucerne 8: Lima leads by 62 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Lima
51match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LimaLucerne

Where the figures come from

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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaLucerne
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencySol (PEN)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation154 m436 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaLucerne
City population9,943,80086,234
People per km²3,7212,963
Museums within 10 km4714
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lima or Lucerne 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.