VacationSelector
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santa Fe 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 Fe for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • 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. Santa Fe 5, Tromso 8: Tromso leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Santa Fe 62, Tromso 36: Santa Fe leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Fe 66, Tromso 27: Santa Fe leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Santa Fe 22, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Fe 80, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Santa Fe 70, Tromso 14: Santa Fe leads by 56 points.
Good for families. Santa Fe and Tromso are level on 45.
Getting around. Santa Fe 40, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Fe 62, Tromso 15: Santa Fe leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Santa Fe 30, Tromso 11: Santa Fe leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Fe 55, Tromso 32: Santa Fe leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Fe 55, Tromso 38: Santa Fe leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Fe and Tromso.

Your match

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

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Santa FeTromso

Where the figures come from

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta FeTromso
Official language-Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation2,134 m20 m
Main airportSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta FeTromso
City population87,50579,943
People per km²64532
Museums within 10 km108
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Santa Fe 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.