VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santa Monica 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 Monica for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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 Monica 66, Tromso 8: Santa Monica leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Tromso 36: Santa Monica leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Tromso 27: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica and Tromso are level on 38.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Tromso 14: Santa Monica leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Tromso 45: Santa Monica leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Tromso 15: Santa Monica leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Tromso 11: Santa Monica leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Tromso 32: Santa Monica leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, Tromso 38: Santa Monica leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and Tromso.

Your match

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

Santa Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Santa Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 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
Santa MonicaTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaTromso
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
Elevation32 m20 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaTromso
City population93,07679,943
People per km²4,27032
Museums within 10 km198
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Monica 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.