VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nature and the outdoors

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. Barcelona 75, Tromso 8: Barcelona leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Tromso 36: Barcelona leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Tromso 27: Barcelona leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Tromso 38: Barcelona leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Tromso 14: Barcelona leads by 66 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Tromso 45: Barcelona leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Tromso 60: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Tromso 15: Barcelona leads by 60 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Tromso 11: Barcelona leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Tromso 32: Barcelona leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona and Tromso are level on 38.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Tromso.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
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
BarcelonaTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaTromso
Official languageSpanishNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation9 m20 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaTromso
City population1,731,64979,943
People per km²17,09432
Museums within 10 km958
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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. 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.