VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Galway or Oslo?

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 Galway for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Oslo for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Oslo’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. Galway 28, Oslo 36: Oslo leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Oslo 55: Oslo leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Oslo 66: Oslo leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Oslo 48: Galway leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Oslo 82: Oslo leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Oslo 52: Galway leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Oslo 63: Oslo leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Oslo 85: Oslo leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Oslo 50: Oslo leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Oslo 14: Galway leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Oslo 62: Oslo leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Oslo 60: Oslo leads by 32 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Oslo.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Oslo
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayOslo

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayOslo
Official languageEnglish, IrishNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation25 m23 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayOslo
City population83,456717,710
People per km²1,563-
Museums within 10 km460
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 Galway or Oslo 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.