VacationSelector
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Limassol 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 Limassol for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Limassol 77, Lucerne 35: Limassol leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Limassol 58, Lucerne 35: Limassol leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Limassol 38, Lucerne 58: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Limassol 50, Lucerne 28: Limassol leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Limassol 65, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Limassol 76, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Limassol 63, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Limassol 38, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Limassol 42, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Limassol 44, Lucerne 8: Limassol leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Limassol 32, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Limassol 42, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Limassol and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Limassol
52match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Lucerne
54match

Wins on getting around 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.

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LimassolLucerne

Where the figures come from

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

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. Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimassolLucerne
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m436 m
Main airportLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimassolLucerne
City population107,97086,234
People per km²2,4052,963
Museums within 10 km214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Limassol 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. 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. 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.