VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or Bethany 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Bethany Beach for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Bethany 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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Bethany Beach 72: Bethany Beach leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Bethany Beach 35: Antigua Guatemala leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Bethany Beach 10: Antigua Guatemala leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Bethany Beach 12: Antigua Guatemala leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Bethany Beach 48: Antigua Guatemala leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Bethany Beach 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Bethany Beach 66: Bethany Beach leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Bethany Beach 33: Antigua Guatemala leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Bethany Beach 28: Antigua Guatemala leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Bethany Beach 30: Antigua Guatemala leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Bethany Beach 14: Antigua Guatemala leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Bethany Beach 33: Antigua Guatemala leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Bethany Beach.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Bethany Beach
36match

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.

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Bethany Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
95 mmrain in the month
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaBethany Beach

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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.

Bethany Beach's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Salisbury / Quail Ridge.

Bethany Beach 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Bethany Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Salisbury / Quail Ridge (44.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaBethany Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123911
Elevation1,582 m3 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaBethany Beach
City population59,091954
People per km²-318
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala or Bethany 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.