VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Lucerne or Valletta?

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
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Valletta for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Valletta 55: Valletta leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Valletta 46: Valletta leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Valletta 56: Lucerne leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Valletta 76: Lucerne leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Valletta 58: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Valletta 62: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Valletta 38: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Valletta 50: Valletta leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Valletta 44: Lucerne leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Valletta 32: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Valletta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Lucerne
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Valletta
55match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneValletta

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). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneValletta
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshEnglish, Maltese
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation436 m56 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneValletta
City population86,2345,197
People per km²2,9636,496
Museums within 10 km1416
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

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