Reykjavik or Tromso?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on value for money with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Reykjavik if you want a city as well as a setting: many more museums and places to eat near the centre, more to walk between, more protected land around it and a UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach.
Choose Tromso if you want somewhere smaller and quieter, with little nightlife and few museums, and slightly warmer midsummer days at 16°C.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Reykjavik leads by 8 points.8
| Reykjavik | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 52 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 33 | 14 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Reykjavik leads by 25 points.25
| Reykjavik | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 24 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 261 | 85 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 29 | 16 |
Museums & heritage. Reykjavik leads by 27 points.27
| Reykjavik | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 23 |
| Museums within 10 km | 34 | 10 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 23 | 8 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 68 | 80 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
Nightlife. Reykjavik leads by 20 points.20
| Reykjavik | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 7 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 192 | 67 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 166 | 61 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 86 | 91 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 10 | 5 |
Nature & day trips. Reykjavik leads by 48 points.48
| Reykjavik | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 11 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 16 | 9 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 9 |
| Land share of disc % | 56 | 65 |
| Park area within 2 km | 28 hectares | 7 hectares |
Good for families. Reykjavik leads by 28 points.28
| Reykjavik | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 14 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 21 | 9 |
| Park area within 2 km | 28 hectares | 7 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Reykjavik leads by 20 points.20
| Reykjavik | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 28 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 61 | 20 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Tromso leads by 13 points.13
| Reykjavik | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 41 | 54 |
| Price level global | 102.8 | 85.1 |
| Daily budget | €243 | €203 |
Year-round weather. Reykjavik leads by 4 points.4
| Reykjavik | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 37 | 33 |
| Monthly daytime high | 3.2 °C to 14.9 °C | -1.1 °C to 16.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 41 mm to 97 mm | 56 mm to 128 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Reykjavik has about three times as many museums as Tromso, plus a UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach and far more restaurants near the centre, across a wider range of kitchens. Around it, 16% of the land is protected against 9%, with much more park space close in, a theme park Tromso lacks and more attractions for children.
Tromso runs slightly warmer in midsummer, 16°C against 15°C, and Norway's national daily estimate, €203, sits below Iceland's €243.
Where they are alike
Neither is a warm-weather city. Summers top out near 15-16°C, winter days sit close to freezing, and neither gets a month at 40mm of rain or less, so waterproofs travel with you in both.
The sea is 0km from both centres and peaks at 11°C in August in each, so the coast is for walking rather than swimming. The two national price estimates also sit close enough that neither settles the choice.
Which traveller are you?
Museum and restaurant travellers should take Reykjavik: about three times the museums of Tromso, many more places to eat near the centre, and more notable places within walking distance of one another.
Families are better served in Reykjavik too, with more attractions close in, far more park space, a theme park Tromso has no equivalent of, and 16% protected land around the city against 9% for days out.
Travellers who want quiet, and who can do without nightlife and museums, will find Tromso fits, marginally warmer in July at 16°C, with Norway's national daily estimate at €203.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures are national estimates for Iceland and Norway, the price level of restaurants and hotels across each country, not measurements of either city. A capital and a heavily visited northern city can each sit well away from their own country's average, by more than the gap between the two figures, so read them as a comparison of countries only.
The beach counts flatter both places. Reykjavik has 33 beaches nearby against Tromso's 14, but the sea peaks at 11°C and rain is heavy in both, so those beaches are rarely swimming ground.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).
Reykjavik holds up longer either side of summer. Late spring is its driest stretch, 41-49mm, with highs of 10-13°C, and autumn stays drier than in Tromso, 80mm against 128mm in October. Winter days sit near 3°C rather than -1°C.
Tromso's case is July, its warmest month at 16°C, though 73mm of rain comes with it; June is drier, at 57mm. Outside high summer its days turn colder and wetter than Reykjavik's, so the usable window is shorter.
Getting there
| Flying from | Reykjavik | Tromso |
|---|---|---|
| CopenhagenCPH | 3 h 10 m €216-282 1 stop KEF · 37 km | 2 h 35 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 55 m €245-283 1 stop KEF · 37 km | 3 h 20 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| HelsinkiHEL | 3 h 35 m €268-383 2 stops KEF · 37 km | 1 h 55 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| GdanskGDN | 3 h 40 m no fares KEF · 37 km | 2 h 40 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 3 h 20 m €247-346 1 stop KEF · 37 km | 3 h 35 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| StockholmARN, BMA, NYO, VST | 3 h 10 m €174-231 1 stop KEF · 37 km | 2 h 0 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 3 h 30 m €313-393 2 stops KEF · 37 km | 3 h 20 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| ZurichZRH | 3 h 45 m €365-480 1 stop KEF · 37 km | 3 h 40 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| BerlinBER | 3 h 30 m €245-365 1 stop KEF · 37 km | 2 h 55 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 3 h 5 m €293-407 2 stops KEF · 37 km | 3 h 5 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Reykjavik | Tromso |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Icelandic | Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi |
| Currency | Iceland Krona (ISK) | Norwegian Krone (NOK) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110 |
| Elevation | 8 m | 20 m |
| Main airport | Keflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations | Tromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre45 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 16 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Reykjavik | Tromso |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 138,772 | 79,943 |
| People per km² | 569 | 32 |
| Museums within 10 km | 23 | 8 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 42 | 23 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Reykjavik or Tromso somewhere new.