VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Lucerne or San Sebastian?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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, San Sebastian 68: San Sebastian leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, San Sebastian 52: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, San Sebastian 44: San Sebastian leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, San Sebastian 72: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Lucerne and San Sebastian are level on 66.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, San Sebastian 80: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, San Sebastian 40: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, San Sebastian 32: San Sebastian leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, San Sebastian 45: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

Lucerne
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on food and drink and beaches 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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneSan Sebastian

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..

San Sebastian's station stands 252 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). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneSan Sebastian
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSpanish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation436 m6 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneSan Sebastian
City population86,234189,866
People per km²2,9633,118
Museums within 10 km1414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

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