VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Ghent’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. Ghent 25, Tromso 8: Ghent leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Tromso 36: Ghent leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Tromso 27: Ghent leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Tromso 38: Ghent leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 57 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Tromso 14: Ghent leads by 74 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Tromso 45: Ghent leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Tromso 60: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Tromso 15: Ghent leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Tromso 11: Ghent leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Tromso 32: Ghent leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Tromso.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

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.

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GhentTromso

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentTromso
Official languageFrench, German, DutchNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsCE230 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
Elevation12 m20 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentTromso
City population272,65779,943
People per km²1,72832
Museums within 10 km308
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.