VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Lucerne or Madrid?

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 Lucerne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Madrid for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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. Lucerne 35, Madrid 5: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Madrid 60: Lucerne leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Madrid 84: Lucerne leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Madrid 50: Madrid leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Madrid 36: Lucerne leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Madrid.

Your match

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

Lucerne
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneMadrid

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. Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneMadrid
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSpanish
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
Elevation436 m663 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneMadrid
City population86,2343,506,730
People per km²2,9635,801
Museums within 10 km1488
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14

Where else could you go?

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

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.