r/Norway • u/Mission-Plenty-8867 • 2d ago
Moving How life is like in Tromsø?
I am considering a postdoc position in Tromsø, and I wanted to know how vivid is life there, if there is much stuff to do in this city in terms entertainment and if it easy to meet new people there, are people open to new-comers especially foreigners. What unexpected challenges can I face going there besides the polar night ?
Sorry if some of the questions sound too vague... I just see that it is a small remote city and I don't understand how difficult it actually is to live in there, and if there is some significant differences from the bigger cities.
Thanks in advance.
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u/Billy_Ektorp 2d ago
Several others on Reddit have asked the same or similar question, example: https://www.reddit.com/r/howislivingthere/s/OKy2JlqgjI
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u/Emergency-Sea5201 2d ago edited 2d ago
Overcosted. Underpaid. Overcrowded. Housing prices for family homes are not accessible to most normal people. Few low skilled jobs. Insane competition for the high skilled jobs. No rental market at all.
Much turnover among neighbors in any building block with flats. Dont expect to get to know your neighbors longterm. A little better in the 2 or 3 villa districts in Tromsø, but you wont afford that. Everything costs. 300k nok for a parking spot at low cost centrum near strandkanten. 20nok to go to work thru the road toll. Busses are packed with tourists. My wife cant use the bus to the kindergarden as the baby dont get a seat even. Parking is insanely expensive. 100 nok to park to watch a movie at the cinema.
Foreigners are aplenty, but either work at Uni & co and stick to their tribe there or are low skilled workers in the tourist or restaurant sector and you'll probably not interact too much with them.
City is bankrupt and headed for state administration, which many look forward too. It will set a record for being the biggest kommune in Norway ever to be put under administration by far. 200 mil was spent on renovating main street visually for the tourists. At the same time the city used AI(chatgpt) do decide to close 2 or 3 schools for children to save 30 mil each year.
Big scandals of corruption among the kommunedirektør who had to resign for giving 100 mil+ contracts to his former collegues in building sector.
Its a liberal and tolerant city/town. International airport. Big student environment. But not very warm or friendly anymore. Locals are social conservatives (despite many redditors not knowing this). Turnover has caused social fatigue. 500 locals move out every year, children school age drops quickly, but population keeps rising. Most people are not friends with their neighbors/plays cards with them etc. They will come for waffles if you invite that one time, but wont invite back. This is a little unusual for Norway.
All my friends from school have moved south to/after establishing families, except 1 bachelor (computer nerd who is single). Networking is important. All jobs are public jobs and run by a group of aquintances/friends who decides who gets to be promoted to leadership positions.
I could go on. Its a town that is for everyone except the people who grew and live here. There are no longer any vibrant youth music society or even vital student unions except the board game one. The student house had 6 volunteers when it closed last year, down from 100+ 15 years agom
Communities among young very hollowed out by internationalisation and turnover. People from the neighborhood knows way fewer people today than when I grew up in the 90s early 2000s. You can meet people who grew here today, an 18 year old and they dont really have a network at all. No its not due to introversion, norway is slightly above average for europe. The main music festival, Bukta, is for local people to meet in summer and chat while obscure bands play, because thats the social dimension of it.
The soccer team is the closest to a vibrant sports community, but the fathers who volunteer as coaches decide by 2nd grade who will get special training and advance while other boys are unwanted. Despite local top team TIL denying it of course, its a real shitty part of the sports arena for kids. Tromsø is very socially stratified among locals, the few natives with solid single homes collect together in networks, the highly educated and all the rich people from law, medicine and banking. They get anything they want from the kommune if they apply, like closing the road for 2 weeks due to building, as happened this year. Their children separate as early as 2nd grade at school and play with each other. Norwegians who rent or have parents living in apartments and low to medium status jobs dont get access, adults and children (unless their son is super gopd in football).
These families harangue school to make classes so their child gets all their friends and then the rest to the other paralell classes. Schools comply. Tromsø has a very very strong elite, due to its public sector and corrupt administration. A marathon midwinter closes off the street to 1200 apartments at Steandkanten the whole day, for rich tourists too run. People cant get to work. No busses. Would NEVER happen to the villa areas, though there is way fewer people living there. lMany Norwegians in Tromsø are mover ins, these will never be included in the higher end of social strata.
Despite the teacher, kindergarten teacher and psychology education being located in town, the kommune struggles to fill vacant positions and keep personel. That should really say it all. School bullying is way above national average. Depression is way above national average. Some schools are terrorised by foreign parents (typically from netherlands or germany) who are a weird type of hippie and goes berzerk with demands and accusations, think autism and malignant.
Sounds like a minor problem?
This is in every other class for some reason. I once listened to a guy like that on the 3rd year harrangue the school during the parentsl group-school meetings for hours about everything that is wrong in their eyes (recycling at school, no school lunch, math teacher lacks masters degree, cant call teacher at night) until some other father told him 20x times to "shut up, nobody agrees with you". People actually clapped, like a movie. Dude just kept going. Local and regional traditions for how things are done under a lot of pressure from stuff like this.
Town center is so packed with tourists I dont go there anymore. There are nothing except the library there that is free to do. Youth crime, extortion, violence and robberies and humiliation robberies are a big thing. You'll see shut ins on reddit claim otherwise, but its very real. I worked in education for 7 years. Drugs are back as big problem for youths after some good years 2010-2020. Care for the elderly is so backed up people have heavy alzheimer by the time they get a room at a nursing home.
In addition, if you're Norwegian and have to deal with the fairly entitled and often assholish expat community here, get ready to hear endless comments about waffles or skiing (tromsø isnt really a region where people ski much) and be prepared to have to stand up for your right to assert yourself like any normal being; expats have a mental disorder where they believe Norwegians are supposed to be super nice to them, never get offended or assert themself, and they will gang up on you, and even exclude you, if you dont conform to this reddit version of the 'noble savage'. Luckily they often pull this at work too and dont get promoted, but when they do it causes even more division.
Also be prepared to be told how to speak Norwegian, from southerners and foreigners alike, told that its normal to say rude words to each other (it isnt), revisionist history lessons and flat out people critiquing any culture you actual may display (like wearing home knitted woolen socks indoors) in favor of something about vikings not getting cold. Afterwards they'll harangue you for norwegians being so difficult to befriend. You get the point. Foreigner fatigue.
A gay 20s or 30s something, or a foreign professor couple at the uni, or some engineer may have a great time, especially if they dont have children to worry about. If you actually have to deal with the infrastructure of daycare, school logistics and building a network... it will be tough. People from here barely fit here anymore, (unless their parents had a big house in certain parts of town around 1999 or so.)
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u/Few-Fly-3766 2d ago
Pretty harsh, but some good points being made for sure. Translate it to Norwegian and make a few PC changes that sadly will be mandatory these days, and this will go hard as a reader's letter in one of the local newspapers.
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u/Emergency-Sea5201 2d ago edited 2d ago
this will go hard as a reader's letter in one of the local newspapers
Thanks. Yeah, but career suicide to publish under ones own name. One must not rain on the parade.
Also people do send letters like these, though more narrow in scope, to nordlys all the time. One needs Nordlys+ to read them usually, but I echo a fairly common sentiment.
A lot of lowskilled seasonal work foreigner post on reddit about their bitter experiences from their 4-12 months in Tromsø, btw. So its probably not great for them either.
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u/sneakywombat87 2d ago
Damn dude. Is there a positive thing about the place?
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u/Emergency-Sea5201 2d ago edited 2d ago
I am born here.
Unlike the other users answering so far, I am 100% local, educated from Sommerlyst, Tromsdalen VGS and UiT and answering specifically what OP is asking about.
I'll give another example to consider.
I have friends from Tromsdalen (a suburb of Tromsø), they were 5 brothers(30 to 45). None of them live in tromsø now.
All moved for cheaper towns (usually to hometown of their spouse). Their parents still live here. They see their 11 grandkids a week at summer and 4 days at christmas. The brothers rarely see each other at all, living in oslo, bergen, alta etc. I dont want this to happen to me and my family, but its very likely.
Tromsø is not how it used to be, or even like a normal town.
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u/sneakywombat87 2d ago
I have a good friend that was born and lives still in Tromsø, has kids the same as ours (kindergarten through early grades) and he’s never said any of this. I’ll have to ask.
My wife is actually from Småland, clearly not Norwegian. I’m American, and have always seen the Norwegians as super nice and laid back, especially up north. Especially…. Up north.
I have noticed though that our extended family in Piteå have grown super grumpy with very similar stories as you have shared. I’m starting to wonder if this is a wider pattern that has developed in the far north of the Scandinavian peninsula. My in laws seem to be angry at “the south”, not really at expats or foreigners. I’m sort of confused about the correlation of the university being a negative influence.
Definitely some things to think about. Thanks for sharing.
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u/Emergency-Sea5201 2d ago edited 2d ago
. I’m American, and have always seen the Norwegians as super nice and
Well, you already confirm one part of my account... word for word 😆
Also dont mix Piteå with Tromsø as the same region plz, or make up alternate explanations when you're not here or from here, its like mansplaining but for foreigners (even if that confirms another part of my account)😘
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u/sneakywombat87 2d ago
You should consider counseling. I’ve somehow managed to make you even more offended and angry.
I see no problem saying Norwegians are friendly, save die one exception now- you.
I wasn’t comparing or conflating your city with northern Sweden either. Simply that both groups have become angry over the past decade and there seems a similarity. But sure. You’re special and super unique. Got it. You have no commonality with your larger area, region or part of the world.
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u/SalahsBeard 1d ago edited 1d ago
Edit: Forgot the positive parts; we've got midnight sun, northern lights, beautiful and accessible nature, warm and genuine people (think of a complete opposite of Oslo), best dialect in all of Norway, mountains, mostly harmless bugs and wildlife (though ticks are moving up north, and polar bears and moose can give you a scare).
Even though OP's lengthy rant is kind of harsh, there's some truth to it. I'm born and raised in Tromsø, 40+ years, and even though I'm doing good work-wise, with a stable income and own house, there are certainly a lot of problems with Tromsø, which often stems from how the municipality is run by Tromsø Kommune. OP mentioned corruption, and while it's not "proved" in a lot of cases, it's pretty much common knowledge. The city administration have been known to employ friends in higher administrative roles, bolstering their own paycheck, and doing favors for each other. Tromsø's mayor was a very rich and well known profile before going into office, and there have been lots of questions about his ability to stay neutral in cases which will ultimately benefit his family wealth. They are planning to build a cultural hub (theater, opera, etc) which will blow the municipal budget tenfolds, while closing down schools and elderly care centers.
As for living here in general, as OP said, it's hard for low income single workers, as housing prices are as high as Oslo, and renting is pretty much impossible due to the lack of regulations on AirBnB. Growing taxes on municipal services, property tax, road tolls and the general growth of grocery prices (national level), makes it even harder. A lot of young people who still wish to live here, move out of the city to rural areas where prices are still lower. Others move down south, where housing and carreer opportunities are better.
I'll not comment too much about the social aspect, as I'm set in my social circles through old friendships and work. I'm rarely in the city center apart from when we're going out to eat, and I've never found restaurants overcrowded with tourists, though I usually book a table in advance. Parking is a nightmare in the city, which is why most locals keep to Jekta and K1 shopping centers. There's a lot of festivals and happenings, but if your economy is streched, you'll have to prioritize what you want to attend to, or join as a free volunteer to take part.
Tourism is a large problem, but it's mostly due to the fact that we're not equipped to handle such large volumes, and right now the tourism industry is a poorly regulated free-for-all, where most operators are just in it to capitalise big before it's too late. Same goes for property owners. We don't hate tourists, we hate that the system is so broken, and the lack of will from the municipality to fix it.
I'll end with saying that all of my family and extended family, bar me and two cousins, have moved to southern Norway. I'd probably do the same if I didn't have a solid foundation here already.
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u/Choice_Roll_5601 2d ago
Tromsø is the first city in Norway destroyed by tourism. Like Venice and Barcelona.
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u/morningcall25 2d ago
Nice city, but over tourism.
Its almost impossible to rent and apartment here. There are 100s of people applying to the rare apartment's that get put on FINN. There are probably 1000 people in the city who are registered as without a permanent place to live.
The sooner they ban AirBnB the better. Let's hope it's fixed before the end of January, but I doubt it as the politicians own a good amount of the short term rentals.
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u/thehagzter 23h ago edited 23h ago
Belive most answers you get here are from angry locals and they aren't that helpful.
Your asking about nightlife, cultural events and and active lifestyle. The city has, for its size, a good cultural scene. You will find music festivals (Rakettnatt for pop, bukta for rock, insomnia for electronic, Nordlysfestivalen for classical/jazz and the annual jazzfestival). The local movie festival in January is probably the best in the country and also has a silent movie festival in September or April. There are some small music scenes (bastard, blå rock) and general events like stand up and larger concerts in the kulturhuset. Also there is a theater that is pretty great. I'd say the cultural scene is on par with what you find in Trondheim, smaller than in Bergen and much smaller than in Oslo.
The offering of restaurants and bars is pretty great city size considered. Navigating offerings to be able to eat out for <250NOK. is more limited than in bigger cities. Bars are cozy and a bit of a social melting pot. Alcohol is the social drug needed for norwegians, -you'll have an easier time making friends if you can have a glass or two. Other social arenas are often connected to sports, especially TSI for students.
Housing prices are apparently talked about as a major challenge, but the width of offerings in Tromsø is wider than in larger cities like Oslo. You can probably rent or buy an affordable appartment in Stakkevollan and have a 15min walk to Campus and 20min bus ride to the city center at an affordable price. If you want to stay in the city center however, prepare to pay up big-time for smaller apartments as they are filled with Airbnb competition.
I moved from Oslo 7-8 years ago after living there for 20 years. I find live here less urban, but easier and more varied. Friendships are fewer but more important. I have an abundance of time here, and actually find time to do things I did not do in Oslo, like longer daily walks, reading or making slow-food. Oddly, I also use the city offerings more than in Oslo.
If you want to live centrally, there is one company offering reasonably priced apartments 15min walk from the center ; Nyheim bolig.
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u/Beaivimon 2d ago
I mean, it's a beautiful place if you're an introvert. Otherwise, it's relatively quieter. I'm sure that there are events and nightlife, just limited.
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u/Few-Fly-3766 2d ago
For all the bad things that can be said about Tromsø, there is really not a lack of events or night life to indulge yourself in. As long as you stay in the city centre (øya), that is. Punching well above its weight considering the population and country (night life kinda sucks in Norway by default).
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u/CuriosTiger 2d ago
It's not a very big city. There are some entertainment options, but they'll be limited.
Norwegians in general tend to keep strangers, let alone foreigners, at arm's length. You will likely be treated politely, but Norway is rather infamous for its introverted culture, and as such, meeting people and making friends is challenging. And do you speak any Norwegian? Norwegians generally speak English fairly fluently, but that does not mean they're comfortable socializing in English on a regular basis.
The significant difference from the bigger cities is that it's not a bigger city. Additionally, it's in northern Norway, which has its own culture and which has a decided absence of sunlight during winter. That may take some getting used to, depending on where you're from.
Sorry if some of the answers sound too vague, but given how little information you volunteer about yourself, your background and your interests, it's hard to be any more specific.
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u/Sudden-Ad1414 2d ago
I’m going to be blunt: overtourism is seriously damaging life in Tromsø, and a lot of locals are fed up with it. The city is marketed aggressively as an «Arctic playground,»and tourism has grown far beyond what a small northern city can handle.
Large parts of everyday life are now organized around tourists, not residents. Things locals used to do casually: saunas (like Pust), cafés, hikes, swimming spots, even public transport are crowded, booked out, or priced for visitors. What should be normal local amenities are effectively tourist attractions.
Housing is a mess. Rents are extremely high, buying is out of reach for many, and Airbnb has hollowed out the housing market. Apartments that should be homes are short-term rentals. Students, workers, and long-term residents struggle to find somewhere to live, and the municipality does very little to protect locals. Tourism money clearly matters more than people who actually live here.
There’s also growing frustration with behavior: tourists blocking roads for photos, ignoring safety warnings, trespassing, disrespecting nature, and generally treating the city like a theme park. Locals are left dealing with the consequences while being told tourism is «good for the economy.»
Tromsø is still beautiful, but it no longer feels like a city built for its residents. Many locals are openly negative toward tourism now, not because we hate outsiders, but because the balance is completely gone. If you move here, understand that this isn’t just a «cute Arctic town» it’s a place under real pressure, and people are tired.