VacationSelector
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Tromso or Wellington?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Wellington for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Tromso 36, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Tromso 27, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Tromso 38, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tromso 92, Wellington 78: Tromso leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Tromso 14, Wellington 40: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Tromso 45, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Tromso 60, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Tromso 15, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Tromso 11, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tromso 32, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tromso 38, Wellington 30: Tromso leads by 8 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tromso and Wellington.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on shopping and food and drink 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
TromsoWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTromsoWellington
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110111
Elevation20 m0 m
Main airportTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureTromsoWellington
City population79,943216,200
People per km²32487
Museums within 10 km812
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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