VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cusco 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 Cusco for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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. Cusco 3, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Virginia Beach 42: Cusco leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Virginia Beach 30: Cusco leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, Virginia Beach 37: Cusco leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Virginia Beach 56: Cusco leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Virginia Beach 64: Cusco leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 65 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Virginia Beach 27: Cusco leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Virginia Beach 32: Cusco leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Virginia Beach 40: Cusco leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Virginia Beach 32: Cusco leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Cusco
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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.

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CuscoVirginia Beach

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

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

Before you go

MeasureCuscoVirginia Beach
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua-
CurrencySol (PEN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation3,399 m7 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoVirginia Beach
City population428,450459,470
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Cusco 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). 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.