VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Scottsdale?

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
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Scottsdale for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: Lucerne leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Scottsdale 46: Scottsdale leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Scottsdale 38: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Scottsdale 52: Scottsdale leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Scottsdale 68: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Scottsdale 50: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Scottsdale 60: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Scottsdale 20: Lucerne leads by 66 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Scottsdale 32: Scottsdale leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Scottsdale 40: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Scottsdale.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Scottsdale
46match

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
16 hdaylight a day

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneScottsdale

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). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneScottsdale
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
Emergency number112911
Elevation436 m380 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneScottsdale
City population86,234241,361
People per km²2,963-
Museums within 10 km1410
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

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