VacationSelector
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Las Vegas 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 Las Vegas for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Las Vegas’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. Las Vegas 10, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Las Vegas 68, Virginia Beach 42: Las Vegas leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Las Vegas 25, Virginia Beach 30: Virginia Beach leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Las Vegas 88, Virginia Beach 37: Las Vegas leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Las Vegas 68, Virginia Beach 56: Las Vegas leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Las Vegas 25, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Las Vegas 25, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Las Vegas 38, Virginia Beach 27: Las Vegas leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Las Vegas 64, Virginia Beach 32: Las Vegas leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Las Vegas 35, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Las Vegas 78, Virginia Beach 38: Las Vegas leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Las Vegas 40, Virginia Beach 32: Las Vegas leads by 8 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Las Vegas 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

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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.

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Las VegasVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLas VegasVirginia Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation610 m7 m
Main airportHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLas VegasVirginia Beach
City population641,903459,470
People per km²1,843-
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Las Vegas 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.