VacationSelector
Grote Markt and the Brabo Fountain, Antwerp
AntwerpGrote Markt and the Brabo Fountain
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Antwerp by Norbert Jakab, Pexels License; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Antwerp 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 Antwerp for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Antwerp 15, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Antwerp 62, Virginia Beach 42: Antwerp leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Antwerp 73, Virginia Beach 30: Antwerp leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Antwerp 56, Virginia Beach 37: Antwerp leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antwerp 33, Virginia Beach 56: Virginia Beach leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Antwerp 86, Virginia Beach 64: Antwerp leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Antwerp 62, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Antwerp 75, Virginia Beach 27: Antwerp leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Antwerp 70, Virginia Beach 32: Antwerp leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Antwerp 38, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antwerp 58, Virginia Beach 38: Antwerp leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antwerp 30, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antwerp and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Antwerp
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Antwerp in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AntwerpVirginia Beach

Where the figures come from

Antwerp 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.

Antwerp's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Uccle.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Antwerp: 1991-2020 normals, Antwerpen / Deurne (5.2 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntwerpVirginia Beach
Official languageFrench, German, Dutch-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m7 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)36 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntwerpVirginia Beach
City population529,247459,470
People per km²2,542-
Museums within 10 km382
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km90
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antwerp 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.