VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Lisbon 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 Lisbon for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Lisbon 50, Lucerne 35: Lisbon leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Lucerne 35: Lisbon leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Lucerne 58: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Lucerne 28: Lisbon leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Lucerne 78: Lisbon leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Lucerne 46: Lisbon leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Lucerne 8: Lisbon leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lisbon and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Lucerne
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.

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonLucerne

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. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonLucerne
Official languagePortugueseFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation100 m436 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonLucerne
City population545,79686,234
People per km²5,4532,963
Museums within 10 km8014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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