VacationSelector
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santiago 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 Santiago for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families

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. Santiago 12, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Santiago 60, Virginia Beach 42: Santiago leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago 52, Virginia Beach 30: Santiago leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Santiago 60, Virginia Beach 37: Santiago leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago 83, Virginia Beach 56: Santiago leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Santiago 70, Virginia Beach 64: Santiago leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Santiago 57, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Santiago 68, Virginia Beach 27: Santiago leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago 52, Virginia Beach 32: Santiago leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Santiago 58, Virginia Beach 40: Santiago leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago 55, Virginia Beach 38: Santiago leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago 37, Virginia Beach 32: Santiago leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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.

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
SantiagoVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoVirginia Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132911
Elevation575 m7 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoVirginia Beach
City population6,257,516459,470
People per km²7,468-
Museums within 10 km542
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 Santiago 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). 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. 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.