VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

New York or Oslo?

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 New York for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Oslo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Oslo’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. New York 50, Oslo 36: New York leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, Oslo 55: New York leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, Oslo 66: New York leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, Oslo 48: New York leads by 49 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, Oslo 82: Oslo leads by 27 points.
Day trips. New York 68, Oslo 52: New York leads by 16 points.
Good for families. New York 70, Oslo 63: New York leads by 7 points.
Getting around. New York 82, Oslo 85: Oslo leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, Oslo 50: New York leads by 47 points.
Affordability. New York 12, Oslo 14: Oslo leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, Oslo 62: New York leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 42, Oslo 60: Oslo leads by 18 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New York and Oslo.

Your match

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

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Oslo
56match

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.

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
New YorkOslo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkOslo
Official language-Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation25 m23 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkOslo
City population8,804,190717,710
People per km²7,256-
Museums within 10 km15760
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New York or Oslo 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.