VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Pattaya 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 Pattaya for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’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. Pattaya 66, Tromso 8: Pattaya leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Tromso 36: Pattaya leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Tromso 27: Pattaya leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Tromso 38: Pattaya leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Tromso 14: Pattaya leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Tromso 45: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Tromso 15: Pattaya leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Tromso 11: Pattaya leads by 73 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Tromso 32: Tromso leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Tromso 38: Pattaya leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Tromso.

Your match

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

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and beaches 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.

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaTromso

Where the figures come from

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaTromso
Official languageThaiNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyBaht (THB)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation35 m20 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaTromso
City population119,53279,943
People per km²-32
Museums within 10 km08
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Pattaya or Tromso somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.