VacationSelector
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Manchester 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 Manchester for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Manchester’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. Manchester 9, Tromso 8: Manchester leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Manchester 51, Tromso 36: Manchester leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Manchester 50, Tromso 27: Manchester leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Manchester 72, Tromso 38: Manchester leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manchester 64, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Manchester 77, Tromso 14: Manchester leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Manchester 58, Tromso 45: Manchester leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Manchester 68, Tromso 60: Manchester leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Manchester 62, Tromso 15: Manchester leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Manchester 42, Tromso 11: Manchester leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manchester 74, Tromso 32: Manchester leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manchester 15, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manchester and Tromso.

Your match

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

Manchester
Best match
54match

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.

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °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°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
ManchesterTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManchesterTromso
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
Elevation38 m20 m
Main airportManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureManchesterTromso
City population547,62779,943
People per km²4,73732
Museums within 10 km288
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 Manchester 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. 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.