VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Ottawa?

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
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Ottawa’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 and Ottawa are level on 35.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Ottawa 45: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Ottawa 35: Ottawa leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Ottawa 68: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Ottawa 55: Lucerne leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Ottawa 62: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Ottawa 40: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Ottawa 40: Ottawa leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Ottawa 52: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

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

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneOttawa

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). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneOttawa
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 m70 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneOttawa
City population86,2341,017,449
People per km²2,963366
Museums within 10 km1420
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

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