VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Ottawa 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 Ottawa for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Ottawa 35, Tromso 8: Ottawa leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Tromso 36: Ottawa leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Tromso 27: Ottawa leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Tromso 14: Ottawa leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Tromso 45: Ottawa leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Tromso 60: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Tromso 15: Ottawa leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Tromso 11: Ottawa leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Tromso 32: Ottawa leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Tromso 38: Ottawa leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Tromso.

Your match

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

Ottawa
Best match
51match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 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

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaTromso
Official languageFrench, EnglishNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)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
Elevation70 m20 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaTromso
City population1,017,44979,943
People per km²36632
Museums within 10 km208
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Ottawa 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.