VacationSelector
A galleon on the Motława below the old crane, Gdansk
GdanskA galleon on the Motława below the old crane
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Gdansk by Nikater, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Gdansk 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 Gdansk for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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. Gdansk 40, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Gdansk 50, Virginia Beach 42: Gdansk leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Gdansk 68, Virginia Beach 30: Gdansk leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Gdansk 52, Virginia Beach 37: Gdansk leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gdansk 58, Virginia Beach 56: Gdansk leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Gdansk 62, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Gdansk 62, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Gdansk 72, Virginia Beach 27: Gdansk leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Gdansk 42, Virginia Beach 32: Gdansk leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Gdansk 68, Virginia Beach 40: Gdansk leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gdansk 52, Virginia Beach 38: Gdansk leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gdansk 36, Virginia Beach 32: Gdansk leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gdansk and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Gdansk
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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.

Gdansk in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 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
GdanskVirginia Beach

Where the figures come from

Gdansk 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.

Gdansk's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Elblag.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGdanskVirginia Beach
Official languagePolish-
CurrencyZloty (PLN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation11 m7 m
Main airportGdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre72 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGdanskVirginia Beach
City population487,834459,470
People per km²714-
Museums within 10 km342
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Gdansk 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.