VacationSelector
Mountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola, Telluride
TellurideMountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola
The Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Telluride by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Telluride 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 Telluride for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Zurich for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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. Telluride 5, Zurich 45: Zurich leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Telluride 38, Zurich 53: Zurich leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Telluride 20, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Telluride 20, Zurich 62: Zurich leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Telluride 93, Zurich 80: Telluride leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Telluride 30, Zurich 84: Zurich leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Telluride 45, Zurich 76: Zurich leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Telluride 66, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Telluride 25, Zurich 66: Zurich leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Telluride 7, Zurich 3: Telluride leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Telluride 35, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Telluride 45, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Telluride and Zurich.

Your match

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

Telluride
36match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Zurich
Best match
63match

Wins on day trips and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Telluride in July

23 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
TellurideZurich

Where the figures come from

Telluride 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Telluride: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Telluride / Lime (8.2 km from centre). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTellurideZurich
Official language-French, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,667 m408 m
Main airportMontrose Regional Airport (MTJ)64 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureTellurideZurich
City population2,607440,935
People per km²1,3725,016
Museums within 10 km063
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Telluride or Zurich 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.