VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Lucerne or Montego Bay?

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

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Montego Bay’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, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Montego Bay 28: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Montego Bay 42: Montego Bay leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Montego Bay 65: Lucerne leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Montego Bay 50: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Montego Bay 48: Lucerne leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Montego Bay 20: Lucerne leads by 66 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Montego Bay 25: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Montego Bay 38: Montego Bay leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Montego Bay 32: Lucerne leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Montego Bay 45: Lucerne leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and prices 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
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Montego Bay in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneMontego Bay

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). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneMontego Bay
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation436 m19 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneMontego Bay
City population86,234123,994
People per km²2,963-
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lucerne or Montego Bay 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.