VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Tokyo?

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

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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, Tokyo 40: Tokyo leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 63 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Tokyo 68: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 53 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Tokyo 48: Tokyo leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Tokyo.

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 with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

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

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneTokyo

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). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneTokyo
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshJapanese
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation436 m6 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneTokyo
City population86,23414,264,798
People per km²2,9636,501
Museums within 10 km14192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Tokyo 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.