VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The Hofburg and Heldenplatz, Vienna
ViennaThe Hofburg and Heldenplatz

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Vienna by C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT, cropped.

Lucerne or Vienna?

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
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Vienna for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Vienna’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, Vienna 27: Lucerne leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Vienna 68: Vienna leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Vienna 89: Vienna leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Vienna 50: Vienna leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Vienna 62: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Vienna 74: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Vienna 77: Vienna leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Vienna 90: Vienna leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Vienna 62: Vienna leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Vienna 44: Vienna leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Vienna 96: Vienna leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Vienna 58: Vienna leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Vienna.

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 beaches with your weighting.

Vienna
Best match
66match

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
16 hdaylight a day

Vienna in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneVienna

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). Vienna: 1991-2020 normals, Wien / Hohe Warte (4.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneVienna
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshGerman, Austrian Sign Language
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation436 m151 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsVienna International Airport (VIE)18 km from centre202 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneVienna
City population86,2342,028,289
People per km²2,9634,890
Museums within 10 km14152
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lucerne or Vienna 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.