VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Quito 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 Quito for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • families
  • 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. Quito 5, Tromso 8: Tromso leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Tromso 36: Quito leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Tromso 27: Quito leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Tromso 38: Quito leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Tromso 14: Quito leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Tromso 45: Tromso leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Tromso 15: Quito leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Tromso 11: Quito leads by 67 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Tromso 32: Quito leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Tromso 38: Quito leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and Tromso.

Your match

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

Quito
Best match
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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.

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 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

-5°0°5°10°15°20°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoTromso

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoTromso
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation2,850 m20 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoTromso
City population1,763,27579,943
People per km²4,73532
Museums within 10 km168
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Quito 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.