VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Francisco 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 Francisco for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Tromso for

  • 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 Francisco 25, Tromso 8: San Francisco leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Tromso 36: San Francisco leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Tromso 27: San Francisco leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Tromso 38: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 12 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Tromso 14: San Francisco leads by 58 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Tromso 45: San Francisco leads by 21 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Tromso 60: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Tromso 15: San Francisco leads by 43 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Tromso 11: San Francisco leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Tromso 32: San Francisco leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Tromso 38: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and Tromso.

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on 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 Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 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°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoTromso
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
Elevation16 m20 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoTromso
City population873,96579,943
People per km²1,45532
Museums within 10 km518
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Francisco 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.