Alongside Switzerland, Norway is also among the most expensive countries in the world. If you’re planning a trip to Norway and unsure how much money you need for your trip to Tromsø, keep reading to get some guidance!
Some general comments
FlighT COSTS
I excluded the costs for our flight to Tromsø from the expense analysis below, since this highly varies from your destination of origin. I personally flew from Zurich and got a really good deal, which is why we only paid 300 CHF per person for a return ticket. But be prepared to to pay a bit more, even if it’s a flight within Europe. Tromsø is farther North than you would expect, which led to a 4 hour flight from Zurich. Either way, be prepared to spend a bit more on flights than you might for other European destinations.
Everything was paid by credit card
Secondly, I used my credit card for all transactions, hence the expenses also include a small exchange rate fee. I usually use Revolut – check it out, I can highly recommend this card for traveling! If you use a different card, your fees might differ and lead to slightly higher prices.
EXPENSES ARE in CHF
Since I am Swiss, my expenses are obviously all calculated in Swiss Francs. However, lucky for me the Swiss Franc is basically on par with the USD and the Euro. This means, if you’re currency of reference is any of these you can just take the numbers as they are without converting them!
Trip for two
I was travelling with my boyfriend on this trip. In this case I believe there were not many benefits to travelling as a pair, since there weren’t many expenses to split (such as taxi rides for example). We did share some meals, but other than that I would say the costs would be the same as a solo traveller.
Trip equivalent to roughly 3 days
We arrived on Friday evening and left around noon on Monday. Technically, we weren’t even there for 3 full days (if you think of days as being a full 24 hours), but our time was still spread over 4 calendar days. Hence, I think it makes sense to consider this trip a 3 day trip at least.
Now let’s get to the interesting stuff!!
Here are the most important stats
| category | Total Cost (in CHF) | Average per Day | % of Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel | 210 | 70 | 34% |
| Food | 91 | 30 | 15% |
| Activities | 281 | 94 | 45% |
| Transport | 23 | 8 | 4% |
| Souvenirs | 18 | 6 | 3% |
| Total | 622 | 207 | 100% |
Visually, the data looks like this:
Overall, I spent 622 CHF in 3 days, which averages out to approx. 207 CHF per day including accommodation. Looking back, this seems extremely high! But let’s dig a bit deeper, shall we?
Here is the split per expense category
Activities
As you can see, the biggest expense category was activities. This always makes me really happy to see, because this is where memories are made! We had two tours booked for our stay: a Northern Lights Tour and a Sami Experience Tour. The former cost 115 CHF per person, the latter 135 CHF p.p. I would highly recommend both experiences tough, since you learn most with a tour and you really don’t want to be driving in those winter conditions by yourself! Additionally, we took the Fjellheisen cable car up the mountain Storsteinen, which cost a little under 30 CHF for a return ticket. I’ve included this expense in activities since it’s more of an attraction than a means of transport, in my opinion 🙂
Accommodation
The second biggest expense category was accommodation. We stayed at Ami Hotel, a low- to mid-range hotel. At 70 CHF p.p. per night, this was the cheapest option that I could find for a private room in the city center. However, I do believe that there are some hostels with shared rooms if you’re on a super tight budget.
Food
Third on the list of biggest expenses is of course food. We spent around 30 CHF per person per day on food. This includes all meals and any snacks throughout the day. In the chart below you can see the expense split per meal type.
The most expensive meal was usually our dinner. We always ate out for dinner, since there are so many restaurants in Tromsø and we wanted to try some of them! Lunch was usually included in the tour or we only had something light, which is why that one is lower. We had breakfast everyday at a bakery called Backstube, they had such good pastries and decent coffee!!! Since we were always on the go, we wanted to make sure to always have some snacks at hand. Overall, our average per meal type looked like this:
| Meal Type | Average Cost (in CHF) |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | 5 |
| Lunch | |
| Dinner | 23 |
| Snacks | 3 |
I have to say, that we did not consume a single drop of alcohol!! If you like to drink, be prepared to spend a lot more in the food & drinks category, since alcohol is really expensive in Norway!
Other categories
All the other cost categories are pretty low and almost not worth mentioning. I bought some souvenirs, which I include in the expenses since I assume the majority of tourists will get something to remember the trip. Transportation includes the bus ride to and from the airport, which for a return trip costs roughly 22 CHF per person.
Highest single costs
Let’s break down my top three highest single costs:
- Hotel: This is an obvious one, and one you can’t avoid. In my case that was 70 CHF per night or a total of 210 CHF for the entire stay.
- Sami Experience Tour: This was such an awesome tour! The guide takes you to a reindeer farm where you can feed the animals, and you’ll also get a presentation about Sami culture, as well as a nice stew for lunch. Worth every penny!
- Northern Lights Tour: This tour was a little bit of a fail for us, since the weather was very cloudy and we did not see any Northern lights. However, that’s something you need to be aware of and is part of the deal, nobody can guarantee a sighting…
What I would do differently
Overall, I am pretty happy with HOW we spent our money in Tromsø. Looking at the absolute cost it seems absurdly high for an extended weekend, but that’s primarily due to the two tours. And for me that’s just part of the game since I am a firm believer in seeing as much as you can, even if this includes spending a bit more on experiences.
Final remarks
To conclude, if you plan on doing excursions each day (which I do recommend, especially in the winter!!) you should expect to spend roughly 200 CHF per day per person in Tromsø in total. I say especially in the winter, because I don’t recommend driving yourself in the snowy and icy conditions in Tromsø unless you are fully confident and used to it. If you take out any activities (which doesn’t make sense in my opinion), you’ll land on roughly 120 CHF per day.
I hope this breakdown of my costs helps you estimate the budget for your own travels! If you’ve been to Norway before I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below, did your spending also fall into the range I’ve just outlined?
P.S. For cost breakdowns of other destinations around the world check out this page here.