VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
Château Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace, Quebec City
Quebec CityChâteau Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Quebec City by Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Quebec City?

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
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Quebec City for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Quebec City’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, Quebec City 18: Lucerne leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Quebec City 57: Quebec City leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Quebec City 70: Quebec City leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Quebec City 42: Quebec City leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Quebec City 79: Lucerne leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Quebec City 58: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Quebec City 64: Lucerne leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Quebec City 50: Lucerne leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Quebec City 45: Lucerne leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Quebec City 45: Quebec City leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Quebec City 52: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Quebec City 55: Quebec City leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Quebec City.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Lucerne
54match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Quebec City
53match

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

Quebec City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneQuebec City

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). Quebec City: 1991-2020 normals, Beauport (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneQuebec City
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 m98 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsQuebec Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB)13 km from centre34 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneQuebec City
City population86,234574,482
People per km²2,9631,184
Museums within 10 km1416
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 Quebec City 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.