VacationSelector
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Salt Lake City 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 Salt Lake City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’s own page.

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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. Salt Lake City 12, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Salt Lake City 40, Virginia Beach 42: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Salt Lake City 42, Virginia Beach 30: Salt Lake City leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Salt Lake City 30, Virginia Beach 37: Virginia Beach leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salt Lake City 90, Virginia Beach 56: Salt Lake City leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Salt Lake City 34, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Salt Lake City 72, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Salt Lake City 42, Virginia Beach 27: Salt Lake City leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Salt Lake City 36, Virginia Beach 32: Salt Lake City leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Salt Lake City and Virginia Beach are level on 40.
Live music & performing arts. Salt Lake City 55, Virginia Beach 38: Salt Lake City leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salt Lake City 38, Virginia Beach 32: Salt Lake City leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salt Lake City and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches 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.

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 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
Salt Lake CityVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSalt Lake CityVirginia Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,288 m7 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalt Lake CityVirginia Beach
City population199,723459,470
People per km²690-
Museums within 10 km122
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 Salt Lake City 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.