VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Aspen or Tromso?

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 Aspen for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Tromso for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Tromso’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. Aspen 6, Tromso 8: Tromso leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Tromso 36: Aspen leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Tromso 27: Tromso leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Tromso 38: Aspen leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Tromso 92: Aspen leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Tromso 14: Aspen leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, Tromso 45: Aspen leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Tromso 60: Aspen leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Tromso 15: Aspen leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Tromso 11: Tromso leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Tromso 32: Aspen leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Tromso 38: Aspen leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Tromso.

Your match

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

Aspen
Best match
43match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Tromso in July

16 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
24 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AspenTromso

Where the figures come from

Aspen 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. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenTromso
Official language-Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation2,405 m20 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenTromso
City population7,00479,943
People per km²70032
Museums within 10 km28
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aspen or Tromso 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.