VacationSelector
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral
The Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Limassol or Zurich?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Zurich for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Zurich’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, Zurich 45: Limassol leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Limassol 58, Zurich 53: Limassol leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Limassol 38, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Limassol 50, Zurich 62: Zurich leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Limassol 65, Zurich 80: Zurich leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Limassol 76, Zurich 84: Zurich leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Limassol 63, Zurich 76: Zurich leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Limassol 38, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. Limassol 42, Zurich 66: Zurich leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Limassol 44, Zurich 3: Limassol leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Limassol 32, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Limassol 42, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Limassol and Zurich.

Your match

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

Limassol
52match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Zurich
Best match
63match

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

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 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
LimassolZurich

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.

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). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimassolZurich
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 m408 m
Main airportLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimassolZurich
City population107,970440,935
People per km²2,4055,016
Museums within 10 km263
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 Zurich 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.