Rovaniemi 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 year-round weather and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and places to eat 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 Rovaniemi if you want the warmer of the two, with summer highs near 21°C and drier months in spring, and if you are travelling with children: theme parks within reach and more park space near the centre.
Choose Tromso if you want the coast: more beaches, sea swimming at a summer peak of 11°C, and a larger share of protected land around the city.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Tromso leads by 52 points.52
| Rovaniemi | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 52 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 13 | 14 |
| Coast distance | 99 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | — | 0 km |
Places to eat. Tromso leads by 3 points.3
| Rovaniemi | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 21 | 24 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 80 | 85 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 14 | 16 |
Museums & heritage. Tromso leads by 3 points.3
| Rovaniemi | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 23 |
| Museums within 10 km | 8 | 10 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 7 | 8 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 88 | 80 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Tromso leads by 3 points.3
| Rovaniemi | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 4 | 7 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 52 | 67 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 42 | 61 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 81 | 91 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 3 | 5 |
Nature & day trips. Rovaniemi leads by 5 points.5
| Rovaniemi | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 16 | 11 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 2 | 9 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 9 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 65 |
| Park area within 2 km | 25 hectares | 7 hectares |
Good for families. Rovaniemi leads by 7 points.7
| Rovaniemi | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 21 | 14 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 2 | 9 |
| Park area within 2 km | 25 hectares | 7 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Tromso leads by 3 points.3
| Rovaniemi | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 25 | 28 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 17 | 20 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Rovaniemi leads by 2 points.2
| Rovaniemi | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 54 |
| Price level global | 81.6 | 85.1 |
| Daily budget | €184 | €203 |
Year-round weather. Rovaniemi leads by 10 points.10
| Rovaniemi | Tromso | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 33 |
| Monthly daytime high | -7.9 °C to 20.9 °C | -1.1 °C to 16.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 30 mm to 75 mm | 56 mm to 128 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 0 |
Where they differ
Rovaniemi is the warmer city across the year, with daytime highs of -8-21°C against Tromso's -1-16°C, and it has months at 40mm of rain or less, which Tromso never gets. For children it holds two theme parks within reach where Tromso has none, plus more park space near the centre.
Tromso is the one on the sea, with more beaches nearby and water that peaks at 11°C in late summer. Its surroundings hold more protected land, 9% of the area against 2% around Rovaniemi.
Where they are alike
Cost sits closest of all. The national estimate for Rovaniemi's country is €184 a day against €203 for Tromso's, close enough that neither country's price level should decide the trip.
The two are also alike in town. Both have a similar number of restaurants near the centre, both keep their notable places within walking distance, and both have modest museum offerings with no UNESCO-listed site within day-trip reach. Nightlife in both is limited and close to the centre.
Which traveller are you?
Families with young children are better served in Rovaniemi, which has two theme parks within reach where Tromso has none, and more park space near the centre, even though Tromso keeps many more tourist attractions close in.
Anyone drawn to water and open country should take Tromso. It sits on the sea, with more beaches nearby and water reaching 11°C at its late-summer peak, and 9% of the surrounding land is protected against 2% around Rovaniemi.
Culture-first weekenders will find little between them. Tromso has somewhat more museums, more notable places within walking distance and about twice as many nightclubs, but neither city is built around late nights.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €184 and €203, are national price levels for restaurants and hotels, not measurements of either city. A city can sit well above or below its country's average, by more than the gap between these two, so read them as country-level guidance rather than proof that one trip costs more.
No weather station near Rovaniemi records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and that side of the weather comparison is simply unmeasured. Tromso's beach standing also rests on access to the water rather than swimming weather: the sea peaks at 11°C, so those beaches suit walking more than bathing.
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. Rovaniemi: 2008-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rovaniemi Rautatieasema / Kuusela (0.6 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).
Rovaniemi is the stronger pick from June to August, when highs reach 18-21°C. Spring is far drier, 30-33mm in March and April, though highs then sit at -1-5°C.
Tromso peaks in July at 16°C, cooler than Rovaniemi at the same time, and its sea is warmest late in summer at 11°C. May and June are its driest months, 56-57mm, while autumn and winter run far wetter, 94-128mm a month. If rain matters, come before midsummer.
Getting there
| Flying from | Rovaniemi | Tromso |
|---|---|---|
| HelsinkiHEL | 1 h 30 m no fares RVN · 8 km | 1 h 55 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 3 h 15 m no fares RVN · 8 km | 3 h 20 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| CopenhagenCPH | 2 h 20 m no fares RVN · 8 km | 2 h 35 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 3 h 25 m no fares RVN · 8 km | 3 h 35 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 3 h 5 m no fares RVN · 8 km | 3 h 20 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| ZurichZRH | 3 h 25 m no fares RVN · 8 km | 3 h 40 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| BerlinBER | 2 h 40 m no fares RVN · 8 km | 2 h 55 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| DublinDUB | 3 h 20 m no fares RVN · 8 km | 3 h 15 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| ManchesterMAN | 3 h 10 m no fares KTT · 139 km | 3 h 10 m no fares TOS · 4 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 3 h 0 m no fares RVN · 8 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.
Before you go
| Measure | Rovaniemi | Tromso |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Finnish, Swedish | Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Norwegian Krone (NOK) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110 |
| Elevation | 88 m | 20 m |
| Main airport | Rovaniemi Airport (RVN)8 km from centre43 non-stop destinations | Tromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre45 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 15 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Rovaniemi | Tromso |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 65,329 | 79,943 |
| People per km² | 9 | 32 |
| Museums within 10 km | 6 | 8 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 16 | 23 |
| 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 Rovaniemi or Tromso somewhere new.