VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Santiago?

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

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santiago for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Lucerne leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Santiago 52: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Santiago 83: Lucerne leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Santiago 70: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Santiago 57: Lucerne leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Santiago 68: Lucerne leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Santiago 58: Santiago leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Santiago 55: Lucerne leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Santiago 37: Lucerne leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Santiago.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Lucerne
54match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Santiago
55match

Wins on prices 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
16 hdaylight a day

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneSantiago

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). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneSantiago
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSpanish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation436 m575 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneSantiago
City population86,2346,257,516
People per km²2,9637,468
Museums within 10 km1454
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 Santiago 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.