VacationSelector
The Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi
HanoiThe Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Hanoi by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Hanoi 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 Hanoi for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Hanoi’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. Hanoi 6, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Hanoi 85, Virginia Beach 42: Hanoi leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Hanoi 72, Virginia Beach 30: Hanoi leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Hanoi 50, Virginia Beach 37: Hanoi leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hanoi 52, Virginia Beach 56: Virginia Beach leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Hanoi 58, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Hanoi 35, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Hanoi 36, Virginia Beach 27: Hanoi leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Hanoi 50, Virginia Beach 32: Hanoi leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Hanoi 98, Virginia Beach 40: Hanoi leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hanoi 40, Virginia Beach 38: Hanoi leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hanoi 46, Virginia Beach 32: Hanoi leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hanoi and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Hanoi
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and food and drink 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.

Hanoi in July

34 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
311 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
HanoiVirginia Beach

Where the figures come from

Hanoi's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Phu Lien.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hanoi: 1991-2020 normals, Ha Noi (4.4 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHanoiVirginia Beach
Official languageVietnamese-
CurrencyDong (VND)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114911
Elevation10 m7 m
Main airportNoi Bai International Airport (HAN)22 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHanoiVirginia Beach
City population8,717,600459,470
People per km²2,595-
Museums within 10 km142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Hanoi 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.