VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Ghent 25, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Virginia Beach 42: Ghent leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Virginia Beach 30: Ghent leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Virginia Beach 37: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Virginia Beach 56: Virginia Beach leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Virginia Beach 64: Ghent leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Virginia Beach 27: Ghent leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Virginia Beach 32: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Virginia Beach 38: Ghent leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Virginia Beach 32: Ghent leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

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.

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
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
GhentVirginia Beach

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentVirginia 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
Elevation12 m7 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 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

MeasureGhentVirginia Beach
City population272,657459,470
People per km²1,728-
Museums within 10 km302
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
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 Ghent or Virginia Beach somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. 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.