VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Lucerne or Siem Reap?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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, Siem Reap 5: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Siem Reap 45: Siem Reap leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Siem Reap 42: Siem Reap leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Siem Reap 40: Lucerne leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Siem Reap 55: Lucerne leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Siem Reap 35: Lucerne leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Siem Reap 30: Lucerne leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Siem Reap 38: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 80 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Siem Reap 32: Lucerne leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Siem Reap.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Siem Reap
47match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneSiem Reap

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..

Siem Reap has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLucerneSiem Reap
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshKhmer
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Riel (KHR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation436 m18 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneSiem Reap
City population86,234147,866
People per km²2,963-
Museums within 10 km146
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 Siem Reap 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.