VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
Minato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock, Yokohama
YokohamaMinato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Yokohama by Yoshio Kohara, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Lucerne or Yokohama?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Yokohama for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Yokohama’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, Yokohama 46: Yokohama leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Yokohama 72: Yokohama leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Yokohama 55: Lucerne leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Yokohama 44: Yokohama leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Yokohama 66: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Yokohama 87: Yokohama leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Yokohama 55: Yokohama leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Yokohama 56: Lucerne leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Yokohama.

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.

Yokohama
Best match
64match

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

Yokohama in July

28 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneYokohama

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..

Yokohama's sunshine is measured 29 km from the centre, at Tokyo.

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). Yokohama: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Yokohama (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneYokohama
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 m24 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

MeasureLucerneYokohama
City population86,2343,757,630
People per km²2,9638,585
Museums within 10 km1438
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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