VacationSelector
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Portofino 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 Portofino for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • shopping

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

Choose Tromso for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Portofino 60, Tromso 8: Portofino leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Portofino and Tromso are level on 36.
Culture & sights. Portofino 22, Tromso 27: Tromso leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Portofino 14, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Portofino 77, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Portofino 76, Tromso 14: Portofino leads by 62 points.
Good for families. Portofino 33, Tromso 45: Tromso leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Portofino 50, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Portofino 29, Tromso 15: Portofino leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Portofino 9, Tromso 11: Tromso leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Portofino 7, Tromso 32: Tromso leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Portofino 42, Tromso 38: Portofino leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Portofino and Tromso.

Your match

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

Portofino
Best match
38match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PortofinoTromso

Where the figures come from

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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. Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortofinoTromso
Official languageItalianNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation20 m20 m
Main airportGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortofinoTromso
City population35579,943
People per km²14232
Museums within 10 km148
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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