VacationSelector
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Positano 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 Positano for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • shopping

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • families
  • 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. Positano 77, Tromso 8: Positano leads by 69 points.
Food & drink. Positano 40, Tromso 36: Positano leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Positano 22, Tromso 27: Tromso leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Positano 22, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Positano 80, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Positano 88, Tromso 14: Positano leads by 74 points.
Good for families. Positano 28, Tromso 45: Tromso leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Positano 35, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Positano 45, Tromso 15: Positano leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Positano 10, Tromso 11: Tromso leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Positano 15, Tromso 32: Tromso leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Positano 45, Tromso 38: Positano leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Positano and Tromso.

Your match

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

Positano
Best match
42match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PositanoTromso

Where the figures come from

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano 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.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePositanoTromso
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
Elevation142 m20 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePositanoTromso
City population3,72979,943
People per km²42932
Museums within 10 km108
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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