VacationSelector
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Tromso or Virginia Beach?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 69 points.
Food & drink. Tromso 36, Virginia Beach 42: Virginia Beach leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Tromso 27, Virginia Beach 30: Virginia Beach leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Tromso 38, Virginia Beach 37: Tromso leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tromso 92, Virginia Beach 56: Tromso leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Tromso 14, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Tromso 45, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Tromso 60, Virginia Beach 27: Tromso leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Tromso 15, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Tromso 11, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tromso 32, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tromso 38, Virginia Beach 32: Tromso leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tromso and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Tromso
35match

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

Virginia Beach
Best match
46match

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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
TromsoVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTromsoVirginia Beach
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-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110911
Elevation20 m7 m
Main airportTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureTromsoVirginia Beach
City population79,943459,470
People per km²32-
Museums within 10 km82
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

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