VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Boston 35, Tromso 8: Boston leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Tromso 36: Boston leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Tromso 27: Boston leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Tromso 38: Boston leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, Tromso 14: Boston leads by 58 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, Tromso 45: Boston leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Tromso 60: Boston leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Tromso 15: Boston leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Tromso 11: Boston leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Tromso 32: Boston leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and Tromso.

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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
BostonTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonTromso
Official language-Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation43 m20 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonTromso
City population675,64779,943
People per km²2,91032
Museums within 10 km518
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boston 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.