VacationSelector
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

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

San Diego 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 San Diego for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • 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. San Diego 72, Tromso 8: San Diego leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. San Diego 62, Tromso 36: San Diego leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. San Diego 50, Tromso 27: San Diego leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. San Diego 48, Tromso 38: San Diego leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Diego 77, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 15 points.
Day trips. San Diego 60, Tromso 14: San Diego leads by 46 points.
Good for families. San Diego 96, Tromso 45: San Diego leads by 51 points.
Getting around. San Diego 38, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. San Diego 44, Tromso 15: San Diego leads by 29 points.
Affordability. San Diego 26, Tromso 11: San Diego leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Diego 56, Tromso 32: San Diego leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Diego 45, Tromso 38: San Diego leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Diego and Tromso.

Your match

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

San Diego
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 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
San DiegoTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan DiegoTromso
Official language-Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation129 m20 m
Main airportSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan DiegoTromso
City population1,386,93279,943
People per km²1,43832
Museums within 10 km268
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 monthNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Diego 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.