VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • day trips

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • 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. Johannesburg 5, Tromso 8: Tromso leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Tromso 36: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Tromso 27: Johannesburg leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Tromso 38: Johannesburg leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Tromso 14: Johannesburg leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Tromso 45: Tromso leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Tromso 15: Johannesburg leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Tromso 11: Johannesburg leads by 61 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Tromso 32: Johannesburg leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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
JohannesburgTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgTromso
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
Elevation1,753 m20 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgTromso
City population4,803,26279,943
People per km²2,92232
Museums within 10 km148
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 Johannesburg 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). 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. 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.