VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • day trips
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Interlaken 30, Tromso 8: Interlaken leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Tromso 36: Tromso leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Tromso 27: Tromso leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Tromso 92: Interlaken leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Tromso 14: Interlaken leads by 64 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Tromso 45: Interlaken leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Tromso 60: Interlaken leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Tromso 15: Interlaken leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Tromso 11: Tromso leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Tromso 32: Tromso leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Tromso 38: Interlaken leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Tromso.

Your match

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

Interlaken
Best match
41match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
InterlakenTromso

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenTromso
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsCJ230 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
Elevation571 m20 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenTromso
City population6,12379,943
People per km²1,42432
Museums within 10 km38
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.