VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Lucerne or Reykjavik?

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

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: Lucerne leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Reykjavik 42: Reykjavik leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Reykjavik 25: Lucerne leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne and Reykjavik are level on 92.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Reykjavik 35: Lucerne leads by 43 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Reykjavik 55: Lucerne leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Reykjavik 55: Lucerne leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Reykjavik 25: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Reykjavik 6: Lucerne leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Reykjavik 45: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Reykjavik.

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness 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
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneReykjavik

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). Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneReykjavik
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshIcelandic
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC
Emergency number112112
Elevation436 m8 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneReykjavik
City population86,234138,772
People per km²2,963569
Museums within 10 km1423
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lucerne or Reykjavik 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.