VacationSelector
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan
The Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Stockholm or Zurich?

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 Stockholm for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Zurich for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Zurich’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. Stockholm 40, Zurich 45: Zurich leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Stockholm 64, Zurich 53: Stockholm leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Stockholm 77, Zurich 58: Stockholm leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Stockholm 57, Zurich 62: Zurich leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Stockholm 72, Zurich 80: Zurich leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Stockholm 68, Zurich 84: Zurich leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Stockholm 82, Zurich 76: Stockholm leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Stockholm 84, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Stockholm 70, Zurich 66: Stockholm leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Stockholm 30, Zurich 3: Stockholm leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Stockholm 65, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Stockholm 56, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Stockholm and Zurich.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Stockholm
64match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Zurich
63match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
StockholmZurich

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureStockholmZurich
Official languageSwedishFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencySwedish Krona (SEK)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m408 m
Main airportStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureStockholmZurich
City population984,748440,935
People per km²5,2605,016
Museums within 10 km26663
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Stockholm or Zurich somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.