VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Austin 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 Austin for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • prices

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. Austin 30, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Virginia Beach 42: Austin leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Austin 40, Virginia Beach 30: Austin leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Virginia Beach 37: Austin leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Virginia Beach 56: Austin leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Virginia Beach 27: Austin leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Virginia Beach 32: Austin leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Virginia Beach 38: Austin leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin 40, Virginia Beach 32: Austin leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Austin and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Austin
Best match
50match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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
AustinVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAustinVirginia Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation149 m7 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinVirginia Beach
City population961,855459,470
People per km²1,217-
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Austin 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.