VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Quito?

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
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Quito for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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, Quito 5: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Quito 54: Quito leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Quito 77: Quito leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Quito 40: Quito leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Quito 86: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Quito 55: Lucerne leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Quito 32: Lucerne leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Quito 45: Lucerne leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Quito 40: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Quito 78: Quito leads by 70 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Quito 38: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Quito 44: Lucerne leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Quito.

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

Quito
50match

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneQuito

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..

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneQuito
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation436 m2,850 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneQuito
City population86,2341,763,275
People per km²2,9634,735
Museums within 10 km1416
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

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