VacationSelector
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Sarasota 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 Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • 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. Sarasota 86, Tromso 8: Sarasota leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Sarasota 44, Tromso 36: Sarasota leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Sarasota 45, Tromso 27: Sarasota leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Sarasota 28, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sarasota 55, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Sarasota 50, Tromso 14: Sarasota leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Sarasota 68, Tromso 45: Sarasota leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Sarasota 28, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Sarasota 40, Tromso 15: Sarasota leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Sarasota 30, Tromso 11: Sarasota leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sarasota 58, Tromso 32: Sarasota leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sarasota 45, Tromso 38: Sarasota leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sarasota and Tromso.

Your match

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

Sarasota
Best match
48match

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.

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
SarasotaTromso

Where the figures come from

Sarasota 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.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSarasotaTromso
Official language-Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation7 m20 m
Main airportSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSarasotaTromso
City population54,84279,943
People per km²84032
Museums within 10 km38
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sarasota 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.