VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around

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. Cape Town 58, Tromso 8: Cape Town leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Tromso 36: Cape Town leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Tromso 27: Cape Town leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Tromso 38: Cape Town leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Tromso 92: Cape Town leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Tromso 14: Cape Town leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Tromso 45: Cape Town leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Tromso 15: Cape Town leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Tromso 11: Cape Town leads by 61 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Tromso 32: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Tromso 38: Cape Town leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Tromso.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 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
Cape TownTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownTromso
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation5 m20 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownTromso
City population3,776,31379,943
People per km²1,53832
Museums within 10 km228
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.