VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Taipei?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Taipei for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Taipei leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Taipei 68: Taipei leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Taipei 58: Taipei leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Taipei 78: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Taipei 76: Lucerne leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Taipei 72: Taipei leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Lucerne and Taipei are level on 86.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Taipei 70: Taipei leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Taipei 66: Taipei leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Taipei 55: Lucerne leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Taipei 80: Taipei leads by 34 points.
0255075100

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

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

Taipei
Best match
70match

Wins on prices and food and drink 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

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneTaipei

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..

Taipei 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). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneTaipei
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112110 or 112 or 119
Elevation436 m10 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneTaipei
City population86,2342,429,429
People per km²2,9638,938
Museums within 10 km1469
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

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