VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace, Split
SplitThe Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Split by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Split?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Split for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Split’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, Split 75: Split leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Split 57: Split leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Split 66: Split leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Split 52: Split leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Split 77: Lucerne leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Lucerne and Split are level on 78.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Split 54: Lucerne leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Split 67: Lucerne leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Split 32: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Split 45: Split leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Split 37: Lucerne leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Split 40: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Split.

Your match

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

Lucerne
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Split
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Split in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
25 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneSplit

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). Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneSplit
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshCroatian
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation436 m0 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSplit Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneSplit
City population86,234160,577
People per km²2,963-
Museums within 10 km1411
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

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