VacationSelector
The 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre, Fort Myers
Fort MyersThe 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Fort Myers by Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Fort Myers 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 Fort Myers for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • getting around

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. Fort Myers and Virginia Beach are level on 77.
Food & drink. Fort Myers 40, Virginia Beach 42: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Fort Myers 32, Virginia Beach 30: Fort Myers leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Fort Myers 32, Virginia Beach 37: Virginia Beach leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fort Myers 63, Virginia Beach 56: Fort Myers leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Fort Myers 50, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Fort Myers 62, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Fort Myers 15, Virginia Beach 27: Virginia Beach leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Fort Myers 38, Virginia Beach 32: Fort Myers leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Fort Myers 38, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fort Myers 36, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fort Myers 35, Virginia Beach 32: Fort Myers leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fort Myers and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Fort Myers
43match

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

Virginia Beach
Best match
46match

Wins on day trips 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.

Fort Myers in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
220 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
14 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Fort MyersVirginia Beach

Where the figures come from

Fort Myers 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Fort Myers: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Myers / Page Park (4.5 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFort MyersVirginia Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m7 m
Main airportSouthwest Florida International Airport (RSW)12 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureFort MyersVirginia Beach
City population86,395459,470
People per km²681-
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C10 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fort Myers 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.