VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Queenstown?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Queenstown’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, Queenstown 20: Lucerne leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Queenstown 12: Lucerne leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Queenstown 50: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Queenstown 60: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Queenstown 45: Lucerne leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Queenstown 28: Lucerne leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Queenstown 20: Queenstown leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Queenstown 14: Lucerne leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Queenstown 42: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Queenstown.

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneQueenstown

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..

Queenstown has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLucerneQueenstown
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation436 m324 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneQueenstown
City population86,23429,000
People per km²2,963-
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lucerne or Queenstown 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.