VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Shanghai?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • getting around

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Lucerne leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Shanghai 25: Lucerne leads by 67 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Shanghai 85: Lucerne leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne and Shanghai are level on 66.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 9 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Lucerne
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on food and drink 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
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneShanghai
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshPutonghua
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation436 m4 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneShanghai
City population86,23424,870,895
People per km²2,9633,922
Museums within 10 km1445
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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