VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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. Paphos 76, Tromso 8: Paphos leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Tromso 36: Paphos leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Tromso 27: Paphos leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Paphos and Tromso are level on 38.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Tromso 14: Paphos leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Tromso 45: Paphos leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Tromso 15: Paphos leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Tromso 11: Paphos leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Tromso 32: Tromso leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Tromso 38: Paphos leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Paphos
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosTromso

Where the figures come from

Paphos has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosTromso
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation72 m20 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosTromso
City population35,96179,943
People per km²1,98732
Museums within 10 km48
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.