VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Lucerne or Nuevo Vallarta?

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
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Nuevo Vallarta’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, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Lucerne leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Lucerne leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Lucerne leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Lucerne leads by 61 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Lucerne leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Nuevo Vallarta.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

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

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneNuevo Vallarta

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..

Nuevo Vallarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLucerneNuevo Vallarta
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation436 m3 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneNuevo Vallarta
City population86,2341,301
People per km²2,963-
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Nuevo Vallarta 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.