VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Montreal?

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
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Montreal for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Montreal’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, Montreal 25: Lucerne leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Montreal 78: Montreal leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Montreal 60: Montreal leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Montreal 75: Montreal leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Montreal 66: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Montreal 55: Lucerne leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Montreal 68: Montreal leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Montreal 72: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Montreal 60: Montreal leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Montreal 45: Montreal leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Montreal 76: Montreal leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Montreal 57: Montreal leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Montreal.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Montreal
Best match
61match

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

Montreal in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
98 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneMontreal

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). Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneMontreal
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshFrench, English
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation436 m31 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneMontreal
City population86,2341,895,211
People per km²2,9633,806
Museums within 10 km1437
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

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