VacationSelector

Lucerne or Maastricht?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Lucerne
33
match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

Maastricht
✓ Best match
41
match

Wins on value for money and museums & heritage with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

The verdict

Choose Lucerne if you want water close at hand, 16 beaches nearby against Maastricht's 6, and a compact centre where the notable places sit within walking distance of each other.

Choose Maastricht if the day trips matter more than the base: five UNESCO-listed places within reach, more theme parks, a far larger share of protected countryside, and a drier spring before the summer heat arrives.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

LucerneMaastricht
Beaches & swimming. Lucerne and Maastricht are level on 0.
LucerneMaastricht
Score00
Swim season months00
Beaches 10 km166
Coast distance669 km118 km
Water distance——
Places to eat. Maastricht leads by 1 points.1
LucerneMaastricht
Score4748
Restaurants within 2 km of centre269338
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km2522
Museums & heritage. Maastricht leads by 13 points.13
LucerneMaastricht
Score4053
Museums within 10 km2323
Museums within 2 km of centre1313
Share of museums within 2 km %5757
Unesco sites within 50 km15
Nightlife. Maastricht leads by 2 points.2
LucerneMaastricht
Score2830
Drinking venues within 4 km202223
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre151182
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %7582
Nightclubs within 4 km1113
Nature & day trips. Maastricht leads by 12 points.12
LucerneMaastricht
Score2537
Protected land share 50 km %719
Landscape blanket share 50 km %011
Land share of disc %100100
Park area within 2 km29 hectares33 hectares
Good for families. Maastricht leads by 8 points.8
LucerneMaastricht
Score3846
Tourist attractions within 2 km1515
Park area within 2 km29 hectares33 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km15
Sights concentration. Maastricht leads by 1 points.1
LucerneMaastricht
Score3536
Notable places within 2 km2932
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Maastricht leads by 23 points.23
LucerneMaastricht
Score3558
Price level global110.579.2
Daily budget€248€181
Year-round weather. Maastricht leads by 6 points.6
LucerneMaastricht
Score5359
Monthly daytime high3.6 °C to 24.3 °C5.7 °C to 23.8 °C
Monthly rainfall60 mm to 128 mm41 mm to 84 mm
Dry months00
0255075100

Where they differ

Lucerne's edge is narrow. It has more water close by, 16 beaches nearby against Maastricht's 6, and it matches Maastricht for museums, for park space near the centre and for attractions of the kind families use.

Maastricht opens up more beyond the city. It puts 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Lucerne's 1, along with more theme parks. Protected land covers 19% of the surroundings against 7%. The national budget estimate behind a trip is €181 for Maastricht's country against €248 for Lucerne's.

Where they are alike

Neither is a swimming destination. Both have beaches within reach, more of them around Lucerne, but no month brings the water to 21°C or more.

They are also close on eating out, on sights and on going out: a similar range of kitchens, a similar number of notable places within walking distance of the centre, and comparable numbers of places to drink, most of them central in both cities.

Which traveller are you?

Families with children get more out of Maastricht: 5 theme parks within reach against Lucerne's 1. Park space and attractions near the centre are much the same in both, so the difference lies entirely in the day trips.

A traveller who wants heritage beyond the centre should also pick Maastricht, with 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Lucerne's 1, and much more protected countryside to walk in around it.

If you want a small centre with water at hand, take Lucerne: more beaches nearby, the notable places within walking distance, and July and August highs of 24°C.

What the numbers don't tell you

The daily budget is a single national estimate per country, covering restaurant and hotel price levels: €248 for Lucerne's country, €181 for Maastricht's. It is not a measurement of either city, and a lakeside or heavily visited town can sit further from its own national average than these two figures sit from each other.

Beach counts flatter both. Lucerne has more beaches nearby, but neither city has a month with water at 21°C or more, and Lucerne's warmest months are also its wettest, at 119-128mm, so a swimming plan needs a fallback.

When should you go?

The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Lucerne
4
5
10
15
19
22
24
24
19
14
8
4
Maastricht
6
7
11
15
19
22
24
24
20
15
10
6
Rainfall, mm
Lucerne
62
60
71
80
126
128
126
119
87
85
76
84
Maastricht
64
58
55
41
58
69
73
84
58
65
62
74
Daylight, hours per day
Lucerne
9
10
12
14
15
16
16
14
13
11
9
9
Maastricht
9
10
12
14
16
16
16
15
13
11
9
8
Sunshine, hours per day
Lucerne
2
3
5
6
6
7
7
7
5
3
2
1
Maastricht
2
3
5
6
7
7
7
6
5
4
2
2

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lucerne: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (41.7 km from centre). Maastricht: 1991-2020 normals, Maastricht Airport Zuid Limburg (10 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Lucerne is at its best in July and August, when highs reach 24°C, though those months carry 119-126mm of rain and June is wetter still at 128mm. From November to February highs sit at 4-5°C.

Maastricht's usable season starts earlier and stays drier: April brings 15°C with 41mm, the lightest rain either city sees, and May 19°C with 58mm. High summer matches Lucerne at 24°C but with 73-84mm, and October still holds 15°C.

Getting there

Flying fromLucerneMaastricht
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
1 h 35 m
€110-163
ZRH · 49 km
1 h 10 m
no fares
EIN · 70 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
8 h 5 m
€606-782
1 stop
ZRH · 49 km
7 h 35 m
no fares
BRU · 85 km
BarcelonaBCN
1 h 40 m
€114-151
ZRH · 49 km
2 h 0 m
€148-192
1 stop
EIN · 70 km
RomeFCO, CIA
1 h 30 m
€70-92
ZRH · 49 km
2 h 5 m
no fares
EIN · 70 km
LisbonLIS
2 h 40 m
€188-233
ZRH · 49 km
2 h 45 m
no fares
EIN · 70 km
WarsawWAW, WMI
1 h 55 m
€164-214
ZRH · 49 km
1 h 55 m
€123-157
1 stop
EIN · 70 km
BudapestBUD
1 h 35 m
no fares
ZRH · 49 km
1 h 55 m
€106-231
EIN · 70 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
6 h 15 m
€232-366
1 stop
ZRH · 49 km
6 h 45 m
no fares
BRU · 85 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
11 h 20 m
no fares
ZRH · 49 km
11 h 35 m
no fares
BRU · 85 km
Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE
12 h 0 m
no fares
ZRH · 49 km
12 h 0 m
no fares
BRU · 85 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureLucerneMaastricht
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshDutch
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 911
Elevation436 m49 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre181 non-stop destinationsMaastricht Aachen Airport (MST)9 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneMaastricht
City population86,234120,227
People per km²2,9632,000
Museums within 10 km1421
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Distinct cuisines in the centre4633

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.