Vienna or Zurich?

603 km apart, in Austria and Switzerland. Each is scored month by month on the same ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. This is where they part, and when.

• Vienna Austria · best Jul, Aug, Oct
• Zurich Switzerland · best May, Jun, Jul

Month by month

Each cell is that destination's own verdict for the month — sweet spot, ok or avoid — with its typical daily high and its rainy days ("11d"). The pick goes to the better verdict; with the same verdict, to the higher score, unless the two are within a whisker of each other, when it is either. A month both would avoid is neither. A dot marks a busy month.

Before you go

• Cost of living — Vienna: moderate, about 82% of the United States; Zurich: very expensive, about 112% of the United States.
• Currency — Vienna: Q4916; Zurich: Swiss franc.
• Plugs — Vienna: type C and F, 230 V; Zurich: type C, 230 V.
• Driving — Vienna: on the right; Zurich: on the right.
• Travel advice — Vienna: no advice against travel; Zurich: no advice against travel.

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

Between them

603 km as the crow flies, about 1h 39m in the air.Nonstop, about 10 a day · Austrian, FAI rent-a-jet. By train, about 8h 32m · WB 964 · ECE 190.

The flight time is estimated from the distance. A road, train or bus is named only where it was measured — flights from AeroDataBox, roads from OpenRouteService, timetables via Transitous — and none of it is a fare; the searches on each destination's page are where prices live.

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Every verdict here is the destination's own: ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. The comparison is the difference between two pages, not a third opinion.