VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Havana 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 Havana for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • 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. Havana 64, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Virginia Beach 42: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Virginia Beach 30: Havana leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Virginia Beach 37: Havana leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Virginia Beach 56: Virginia Beach leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Virginia Beach 27: Havana leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Virginia Beach 40: Havana leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Virginia Beach 38: Havana leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Havana
47match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 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
HavanaVirginia Beach

Where the figures come from

Havana 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. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaVirginia Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105911
Elevation59 m7 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaVirginia Beach
City population2,492,618459,470
People per km²3,423-
Museums within 10 km122
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Havana 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). 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). 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. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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.