VacationSelector
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Tromso or Tulum?

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 Tromso for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Tulum for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Tulum’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. Tromso 8, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Tromso 36, Tulum 52: Tulum leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Tromso 27, Tulum 30: Tulum leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Tromso 38, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tromso 92, Tulum 76: Tromso leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Tromso 14, Tulum 68: Tulum leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Tromso 45, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Tromso 60, Tulum 25: Tromso leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Tromso 15, Tulum 35: Tulum leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Tromso 11, Tulum 30: Tulum leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tromso 32, Tulum 15: Tromso leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tromso 38, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tromso and Tulum.

Your match

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

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tulum
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Tulum in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TromsoTulum

Where the figures come from

Tulum has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureTromsoTulum
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110911
Elevation20 m5 m
Main airportTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureTromsoTulum
City population79,94333,374
People per km²32-
Museums within 10 km80
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tromso or Tulum 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.