VacationSelector
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Stockholm 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 Stockholm for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • prices

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. Stockholm 40, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Stockholm 64, Virginia Beach 42: Stockholm leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Stockholm 77, Virginia Beach 30: Stockholm leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Stockholm 57, Virginia Beach 37: Stockholm leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Stockholm 72, Virginia Beach 56: Stockholm leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Stockholm 68, Virginia Beach 64: Stockholm leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Stockholm 82, Virginia Beach 75: Stockholm leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Stockholm 84, Virginia Beach 27: Stockholm leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. Stockholm 70, Virginia Beach 32: Stockholm leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Stockholm 30, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Stockholm 65, Virginia Beach 38: Stockholm leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Stockholm 56, Virginia Beach 32: Stockholm leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Stockholm and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Stockholm
Best match
64match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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.

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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
StockholmVirginia Beach

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureStockholmVirginia Beach
Official languageSwedish-
CurrencySwedish Krona (SEK)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m7 m
Main airportStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureStockholmVirginia Beach
City population984,748459,470
People per km²5,260-
Museums within 10 km2662
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Stockholm or Virginia Beach somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.