VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Lucerne or York?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose York for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, York 42: York leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, York 70: York leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, York 36: York leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, York 62: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, York 80: York leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, York 60: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, York 72: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne and York are level on 46.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, York 38: York leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, York 38: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, York 34: Lucerne leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and York.

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

York
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneYork

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..

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

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). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneYork
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshEnglish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation436 m25 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneYork
City population86,234208,400
People per km²2,963766
Museums within 10 km1424
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

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