VacationSelector
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Tromso or Vail?

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

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Vail for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Vail’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, Vail 5: Tromso leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Tromso 36, Vail 35: Tromso leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Tromso 27, Vail 10: Tromso leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Tromso 38, Vail 30: Tromso leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tromso and Vail are level on 92.
Day trips. Tromso 14, Vail 45: Vail leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Tromso 45, Vail 55: Vail leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Tromso 60, Vail 62: Vail leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Tromso 15, Vail 35: Vail leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Tromso 11, Vail 5: Tromso leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tromso 32, Vail 42: Vail leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tromso 38, Vail 48: Vail leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tromso and Vail.

Your match

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

Tromso
35match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Vail
Best match
39match

Wins on day trips and shopping 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

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
TromsoVail

Where the figures come from

Vail's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Kremmling.

Vail's station stands 186 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Vail 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. Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTromsoVail
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi-
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110911
Elevation20 m2,445 m
Main airportTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureTromsoVail
City population79,9434,835
People per km²32400
Museums within 10 km81
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tromso or Vail 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. 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.