VacationSelector
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Santa Barbara 60, Tromso 8: Santa Barbara leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Santa Barbara 62, Tromso 36: Santa Barbara leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Barbara 48, Tromso 27: Santa Barbara leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Santa Barbara 34, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Barbara 80, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Santa Barbara 55, Tromso 14: Santa Barbara leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Santa Barbara 64, Tromso 45: Santa Barbara leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Santa Barbara 46, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Barbara 45, Tromso 15: Santa Barbara leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Santa Barbara 15, Tromso 11: Santa Barbara leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Barbara 50, Tromso 32: Santa Barbara leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Barbara 50, Tromso 38: Santa Barbara leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Barbara and Tromso.

Your match

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

Santa Barbara
Best match
51match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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.

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °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
Santa BarbaraTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta BarbaraTromso
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
Elevation15 m20 m
Main airportSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta BarbaraTromso
City population88,66579,943
People per km²81632
Museums within 10 km108
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 Santa Barbara 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.