VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Salt Lake 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

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • beaches

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

  • prices
  • families
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake 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, Salt Lake City 12: Lucerne leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Salt Lake City 40: Salt Lake City leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Salt Lake City 42: Lucerne leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Salt Lake City 30: Salt Lake City leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Salt Lake City 90: Lucerne leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Salt Lake City 34: Lucerne leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Salt Lake City 72: Salt Lake City leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Salt Lake City 42: Lucerne leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Salt Lake City 36: Lucerne leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Salt Lake City 40: Salt Lake City leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Salt Lake City 55: Lucerne leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Salt Lake City 38: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Salt Lake City.

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 getting around with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on prices and families 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

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneSalt Lake 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). Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneSalt Lake City
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, Romansh-
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation436 m1,288 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneSalt Lake City
City population86,234199,723
People per km²2,963690
Museums within 10 km1412
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 Salt Lake 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.