VacationSelector
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Virginia Beach or York?

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
  • families
  • prices

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

Choose York for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Virginia Beach leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Virginia Beach and York are level on 42.
Culture & sights. Virginia Beach 30, York 70: York leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Virginia Beach 37, York 36: Virginia Beach leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Virginia Beach 56, York 62: York leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Virginia Beach 64, York 80: York leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Virginia Beach 75, York 60: Virginia Beach leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Virginia Beach 27, York 72: York leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Virginia Beach 32, York 46: York leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Virginia Beach 40, York 38: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Virginia Beach and York are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Virginia Beach 32, York 34: York leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Virginia Beach and York.

Your match

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

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

York
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Virginia BeachYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

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). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureVirginia BeachYork
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation7 m25 m
Main airportNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureVirginia BeachYork
City population459,470208,400
People per km²-766
Museums within 10 km224
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 York 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.