VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Vail?

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

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Vail for

  • nightlife
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Vail’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, Vail 5: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne and Vail are level on 35.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Vail 10: Lucerne leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Vail 30: Vail leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne and Vail are level on 92.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Vail 45: Lucerne leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Vail 55: Lucerne leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Vail 62: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Vail 35: Lucerne leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Vail 5: Lucerne leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Vail 42: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Vail 48: Vail leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

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

Vail
39match

Wins on nightlife and wellness 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

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 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
LucerneVail

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..

Vail's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Kremmling.

Vail's station stands 186 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Vail 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). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneVail
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 m2,445 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneVail
City population86,2344,835
People per km²2,963400
Museums within 10 km141
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 Vail 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.