VacationSelector
Punta del Este
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Punta del Este 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 Punta del Este for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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. Punta del Este 72, Tromso 8: Punta del Este leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Punta del Este 45, Tromso 36: Punta del Este leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Punta del Este 22, Tromso 27: Tromso leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Punta del Este 60, Tromso 38: Punta del Este leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta del Este 55, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Punta del Este 45, Tromso 14: Punta del Este leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Punta del Este 55, Tromso 45: Punta del Este leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Punta del Este 35, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Punta del Este 42, Tromso 15: Punta del Este leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Punta del Este 20, Tromso 11: Punta del Este leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta del Este 22, Tromso 32: Tromso leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta del Este 32, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Punta del Este and Tromso.

Your match

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

Punta del Este
Best match
42match

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.

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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
Punta del EsteTromso

Where the figures come from

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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. Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePunta del EsteTromso
Official language-Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation11 m20 m
Main airportCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePunta del EsteTromso
City population9,27779,943
People per km²45532
Museums within 10 km58
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Punta del Este 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.