VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License.

Lucerne or Philadelphia?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Philadelphia for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Philadelphia’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, Philadelphia 36: Philadelphia leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Philadelphia 62: Philadelphia leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Philadelphia 55: Philadelphia leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Philadelphia 52: Lucerne leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Philadelphia 80: Philadelphia leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Philadelphia 68: Philadelphia leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Philadelphia 66: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Philadelphia 57: Philadelphia leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Philadelphia 40: Philadelphia leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Philadelphia 26: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Philadelphia.

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 getting around with your weighting.

Philadelphia
Best match
57match

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

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucernePhiladelphia

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). Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucernePhiladelphia
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, Romansh-
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation436 m12 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucernePhiladelphia
City population86,2341,603,797
People per km²2,9634,339
Museums within 10 km1454
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 Philadelphia 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.