VacationSelector
A palm-lined Hollywood street with the Hollywood Sign behind, Los Angeles
Los AngelesA palm-lined Hollywood street with the Hollywood Sign behind
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Los Angeles by BenSherman, Public domain; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Los Angeles 60, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Virginia Beach 42: Los Angeles leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Virginia Beach 30: Los Angeles leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Virginia Beach 37: Los Angeles leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Virginia Beach 56: Los Angeles leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Virginia Beach 75: Los Angeles leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Virginia Beach 27: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Virginia Beach 32: Los Angeles leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Virginia Beach 38: Los Angeles leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Virginia Beach 32: Los Angeles leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesVirginia 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
Elevation106 m7 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesVirginia Beach
City population3,898,747459,470
People per km²2,994-
Museums within 10 km392
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Los Angeles 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). 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.