Sydney 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 beaches & swimming and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Sydney leads by 60 points.60
| Sydney | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 6 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 160 | 23 |
| Coast distance | 7 km | 632 km |
| Water distance | 7 km | — |
Places to eat. Sydney leads by 11 points.11
| Sydney | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 67 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,205 | 974 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 31 | 30 |
Museums & heritage. Zurich leads by 5 points.5
| Sydney | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 51 | 56 |
| Museums within 10 km | 44 | 76 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 20 | 37 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 45 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
Nightlife. Sydney leads by 21 points.21
| Sydney | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 54 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 2,050 | 676 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,405 | 553 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 69 | 82 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 120 | 74 |
Nature & day trips. Sydney leads by 21 points.21
| Sydney | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 10 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 9 |
| Land share of disc % | 52 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 115 hectares | 48 hectares |
Good for families. Sydney leads by 28 points.28
| Sydney | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 36 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 37 | 8 |
| Park area within 2 km | 115 hectares | 48 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Sydney leads by 1 points.1
| Sydney | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 59 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 123 | 119 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Sydney leads by 15 points.15
| Sydney | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 35 |
| Price level global | 90.2 | 110.5 |
| Daily budget | — | €248 |
Year-round weather. Sydney leads by 28 points.28
| Sydney | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | 17.7 °C to 27.7 °C | 3.6 °C to 24.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 55 mm to 121 mm | 60 mm to 128 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
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. Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Sydney | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 20 h 40 m €931-1073 1 stop SYD · 9 km | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 9 km |
| SingaporeSIN, XSP | 8 h 5 m €498-549 1 stop SYD · 9 km | 12 h 45 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| Hong KongHKG | 9 h 20 m no fares SYD · 9 km | 11 h 35 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 18 h 15 m no fares SYD · 9 km | 2 h 45 m €110-133 ZRH · 9 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 10 h 30 m €548-574 1 stop SYD · 9 km | 10 h 55 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 14 h 50 m no fares SYD · 9 km | 11 h 55 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| DohaDOH | 15 h 15 m €997-1100 SYD · 9 km | 5 h 55 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 19 h 30 m no fares SYD · 9 km | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 14 h 50 m no fares SYD · 9 km | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 14 h 45 m no fares SYD · 9 km | 11 h 40 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 2026-10, 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 | Sydney | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | French, German, Italian, Romansh |
| Currency | Australian Dollar (AUD) | Swiss Franc (CHF) |
| Sockets | I230 V, 50 Hz | CJ230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 000 | 112 |
| Elevation | 6 m | 408 m |
| Main airport | Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre94 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 | Sydney | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 5,450,496 | 452,421 |
| People per km² | 449 | 5,147 |
| Museums within 10 km | 38 | 63 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 79 | 78 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 6 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sydney or Zurich somewhere new.