VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Steamboat Springs?

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

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Steamboat Springs 30: Lucerne leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Steamboat Springs 14: Lucerne leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Steamboat Springs 20: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Steamboat Springs 88: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Steamboat Springs 12: Lucerne leads by 66 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Steamboat Springs 62: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Steamboat Springs 46: Lucerne leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Steamboat Springs 22: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Steamboat Springs 17: Steamboat Springs leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Steamboat Springs 28: Lucerne leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on wellness 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
16 hdaylight a day

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneSteamboat Springs

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..

Steamboat Springs 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.

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). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneSteamboat Springs
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, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation436 m2,052 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneSteamboat Springs
City population86,23413,224
People per km²2,963503
Museums within 10 km140
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 Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.