VacationSelector
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier
A chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain, Whistler
WhistlerA chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain

Photos: Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Whistler by Ruth Hartnup, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Virginia Beach or Whistler?

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 Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Whistler for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Whistler’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. Virginia Beach 77, Whistler 30: Virginia Beach leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Virginia Beach 42, Whistler 40: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Virginia Beach 30, Whistler 20: Virginia Beach leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Virginia Beach 37, Whistler 42: Whistler leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Virginia Beach 56, Whistler 97: Whistler leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Virginia Beach 64, Whistler 30: Virginia Beach leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Virginia Beach 75, Whistler 68: Virginia Beach leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Virginia Beach 27, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Virginia Beach 32, Whistler 30: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Virginia Beach 40, Whistler 12: Virginia Beach leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Virginia Beach 38, Whistler 15: Virginia Beach leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Virginia Beach 32, Whistler 60: Whistler leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Virginia Beach and Whistler.

Your match

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

Virginia Beach
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Whistler
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Whistler in July

25 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Virginia BeachWhistler

Where the figures come from

Whistler 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre). Whistler: 1991-2020 normals, Whistler - Nesters (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureVirginia BeachWhistler
Official language-French, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation7 m670 m
Main airportNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)104 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureVirginia BeachWhistler
City population459,47013,982
People per km²-58
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Virginia Beach or Whistler 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.