VacationSelector
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
GlasgowKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Glasgow by Stinglehammer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Glasgow 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 Glasgow for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Glasgow’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. Glasgow 14, Tromso 8: Glasgow leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Glasgow 52, Tromso 36: Glasgow leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Glasgow 62, Tromso 27: Glasgow leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Glasgow 66, Tromso 38: Glasgow leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Glasgow 75, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Glasgow 76, Tromso 14: Glasgow leads by 62 points.
Good for families. Glasgow 58, Tromso 45: Glasgow leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Glasgow 66, Tromso 60: Glasgow leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Glasgow 64, Tromso 15: Glasgow leads by 49 points.
Affordability. Glasgow 46, Tromso 11: Glasgow leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Glasgow 72, Tromso 32: Glasgow leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Glasgow 28, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Glasgow
Best match
57match

Wins on day trips and shopping 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.

Glasgow in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GlasgowTromso

Where the figures come from

Glasgow 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.

Glasgow's sunshine is measured 90 km from the centre, at Eskdalemuir.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Glasgow: 1991-2020 normals, Glasgow Airport (11.5 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGlasgowTromso
Official languageEnglishNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation21 m20 m
Main airportGlasgow Airport (GLA)11 km from centre95 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGlasgowTromso
City population626,41079,943
People per km²19032
Museums within 10 km298
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Glasgow 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). 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.