Maastricht or Zurich?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and sights concentration with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Maastricht if you are travelling with children, or want heritage at a smaller scale: more attractions and theme parks close at hand, 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and drier spring and summer months.
Choose Zurich if you are here for eating out, evenings and walking between sights: many more restaurants and bars, and more to see within walking distance of the centre. Bring a raincoat in summer.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Maastricht and Zurich are level on 0.
| Maastricht | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 6 | 23 |
| Coast distance | 118 km | 632 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Zurich leads by 19 points.19
| Maastricht | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 67 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 338 | 974 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 22 | 30 |
Museums & heritage. Zurich leads by 3 points.3
| Maastricht | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 56 |
| Museums within 10 km | 23 | 76 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 13 | 37 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 57 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 1 |
Nightlife. Zurich leads by 24 points.24
| Maastricht | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 54 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 223 | 676 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 182 | 553 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 82 | 82 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 13 | 74 |
Nature & day trips. Maastricht and Zurich are level on 37.
| Maastricht | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 37 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 11 | 9 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 33 hectares | 48 hectares |
Good for families. Maastricht leads by 10 points.10
| Maastricht | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 36 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 15 | 8 |
| Park area within 2 km | 33 hectares | 48 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 5 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Zurich leads by 23 points.23
| Maastricht | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 59 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 32 | 119 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Maastricht leads by 23 points.23
| Maastricht | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 35 |
| Price level global | 79.2 | 110.5 |
| Daily budget | €181 | €248 |
Year-round weather. Maastricht leads by 6 points.6
| Maastricht | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | 5.7 °C to 23.8 °C | 3.6 °C to 24.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 41 mm to 84 mm | 60 mm to 128 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Maastricht suits a family day better: about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre, and 5 theme parks within reach against Zurich's 2. Its heritage points outward, with 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 1, and a little more of the land around it protected.
Zurich concentrates what it has: roughly three times as many restaurants near the centre and a wider spread of kitchens, a similar multiple of bars with far more nightclubs on top, and three times as many notable places within walking distance.
Where they are alike
Neither has the edge on countryside. Around Maastricht 19% of the land is protected against 16% around Zurich, and Zurich has a little more park space near the centre.
Both are inland, and neither is a place to plan a trip around swimming. Their museum offering is closely matched, Zurich on sheer number, Maastricht on what lies within day-trip reach. Summers are alike, both reaching 24°C in July, with Zurich a touch colder in winter, 4°C against 6°C.
Which traveller are you?
Travelling with children: Maastricht. Twice as many tourist attractions sit near the centre, and there are 5 theme parks within reach against Zurich's 2, so days out need less planning.
Eating and evenings: Zurich, clearly. Roughly three times as many restaurants near the centre and a wider spread of kitchens, three times as many bars and many times the nightclubs, most of them central.
A short break on foot: Zurich again, with about three times as many notable places within walking distance. If your interest runs to heritage further out, Maastricht has 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Zurich's 1.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €181 for the Netherlands and €248 for Switzerland, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of Maastricht or Zurich. A city can sit further from its own country's average than these two figures sit apart, so read them as country context only.
Zurich's 23 nearby beaches against Maastricht's 6 count inland water, not a swimming season: neither has a warm-water month, so the tally says little about whether you would actually get in. Peak months mislead similarly: July and August are the warmest in both and among the wettest.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Maastricht: 1991-2020 normals, Maastricht Airport Zuid Limburg (10 km from centre). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).
Maastricht's window runs April to September. April is the driest month either city gets, at 41mm, May and September sit near 58mm with highs of 19-20°C, and July reaches 24°C. August is its wettest summer month at 84mm.
Zurich matches those temperatures, 24°C in July and August, but its warm months are the wet ones, at 119-128mm from May to August. September, 19°C and 87mm, is its better bet; winter is drier at 60-71mm but only 4-10°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Maastricht | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 10 m no fares EIN · 70 km | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 9 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 35 m no fares BRU · 85 km | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 0 m €148-192 1 stop EIN · 70 km | 1 h 40 m €114-151 ZRH · 9 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 2 h 5 m no fares EIN · 70 km | 1 h 30 m €70-92 ZRH · 9 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 45 m no fares EIN · 70 km | 2 h 40 m €188-233 ZRH · 9 km |
| WarsawWAW, WMI | 1 h 55 m €123-157 1 stop EIN · 70 km | 1 h 55 m €164-214 ZRH · 9 km |
| BudapestBUD | 1 h 55 m €106-231 EIN · 70 km | 1 h 35 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 45 m no fares BRU · 85 km | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 11 h 35 m no fares BRU · 85 km | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 12 h 0 m no fares BRU · 85 km | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-09, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Maastricht | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Dutch | French, German, Italian, Romansh |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Swiss Franc (CHF) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CJ230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 or 911 | 112 |
| Elevation | 49 m | 408 m |
| Main airport | Maastricht Aachen Airport (MST)9 km from centre5 non-stop destinations | Zürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre181 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Maastricht | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 120,227 | 452,421 |
| People per km² | 2,000 | 5,147 |
| Museums within 10 km | 21 | 63 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 33 | 78 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Maastricht or Zurich somewhere new.