VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Oaxaca?

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
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Oaxaca for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Oaxaca’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, Oaxaca 5: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Oaxaca 84: Oaxaca leads by 49 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Oaxaca 74: Oaxaca leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Oaxaca 40: Oaxaca leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Oaxaca 62: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Oaxaca 65: Lucerne leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Oaxaca 40: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Oaxaca 55: Lucerne leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Oaxaca 62: Oaxaca leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Oaxaca 77: Oaxaca leads by 69 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Oaxaca 38: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Oaxaca 50: Oaxaca leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Oaxaca.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Lucerne
54match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

Oaxaca
54match

Wins on prices 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

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneOaxaca

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). Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneOaxaca
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 m1,555 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneOaxaca
City population86,234258,913
People per km²2,9633,028
Museums within 10 km1410
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

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