VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Santa Fe?

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
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’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, Santa Fe 5: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Santa Fe 22: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Santa Fe 80: Lucerne leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Santa Fe 70: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Santa Fe 45: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Santa Fe 40: Lucerne leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Santa Fe 30: Santa Fe leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Santa Fe 55: Lucerne leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Santa Fe.

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 beaches with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on food and drink 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

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneSanta Fe

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..

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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.

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). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneSanta Fe
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 m2,134 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneSanta Fe
City population86,23487,505
People per km²2,963645
Museums within 10 km1410
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 Santa Fe 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.