VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Orange Beach 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 Orange Beach for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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. Orange Beach 86, Tromso 8: Orange Beach leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, Tromso 36: Orange Beach leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, Tromso 27: Tromso leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, Tromso 14: Orange Beach leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, Tromso 45: Orange Beach leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, Tromso 15: Orange Beach leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach 38, Tromso 11: Orange Beach leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach and Tromso are level on 32.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach 32, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Orange Beach
Best match
41match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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.

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Orange BeachTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachTromso
Official language-Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation4 m20 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachTromso
City population8,09579,943
People per km²19632
Museums within 10 km08
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Orange Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.