VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cancun 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 Cancun for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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. Cancun 98, Tromso 8: Cancun leads by 90 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Tromso 36: Cancun leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Tromso 27: Tromso leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Tromso 38: Cancun leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Tromso 14: Cancun leads by 51 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Tromso 45: Cancun leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Tromso 15: Cancun leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Tromso 11: Cancun leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Tromso 32: Tromso leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Tromso 38: Cancun leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Tromso.

Your match

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

Cancun
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around and 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.

Cancun in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunTromso

Where the figures come from

Cancun has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunTromso
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation5 m20 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunTromso
City population888,79779,943
People per km²-32
Museums within 10 km18
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Tromso somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.