VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Phnom Penh?

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 Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Phnom Penh’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, Phnom Penh 6: Lucerne leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Phnom Penh 28: Lucerne leads by 64 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Phnom Penh 34: Lucerne leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Phnom Penh 32: Lucerne leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Phnom Penh 35: Lucerne leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne and Phnom Penh are level on 46.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 78 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Phnom Penh 32: Lucerne leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Phnom Penh.

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.

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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

Phnom Penh in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
168 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
LucernePhnom Penh

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). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucernePhnom Penh
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshKhmer
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Riel (KHR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation436 m11 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucernePhnom Penh
City population86,2342,129,371
People per km²2,9633,138
Museums within 10 km143
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 Phnom Penh 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.