VacationSelector
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Sydney 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 Sydney for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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. Sydney 95, Tromso 8: Sydney leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Sydney 77, Tromso 36: Sydney leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Sydney 60, Tromso 27: Sydney leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Sydney 60, Tromso 38: Sydney leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sydney 85, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Sydney 50, Tromso 14: Sydney leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Sydney 75, Tromso 45: Sydney leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Sydney 75, Tromso 60: Sydney leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Sydney 68, Tromso 15: Sydney leads by 53 points.
Affordability. Sydney 22, Tromso 11: Sydney leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sydney 73, Tromso 32: Sydney leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sydney 55, Tromso 38: Sydney leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sydney and Tromso.

Your match

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

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and shopping 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.

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 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
SydneyTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSydneyTromso
Official languageEnglishNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation6 m20 m
Main airportSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSydneyTromso
City population5,450,49679,943
People per km²44932
Museums within 10 km388
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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