VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Stockholm?

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
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’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, Stockholm 40: Stockholm leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Stockholm 64: Stockholm leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Stockholm 57: Stockholm leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Stockholm 72: Lucerne leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Stockholm 68: Lucerne leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Stockholm 84: Lucerne leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Stockholm 30: Stockholm leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Stockholm 65: Lucerne leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Stockholm.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Stockholm
Best match
64match

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

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneStockholm

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..

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

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). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneStockholm
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSwedish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation436 m22 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneStockholm
City population86,234984,748
People per km²2,9635,260
Museums within 10 km14266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lucerne or Stockholm 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.