VacationSelector
Grote Markt and the Brabo Fountain, Antwerp
AntwerpGrote Markt and the Brabo Fountain
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk

Photos: Antwerp by Norbert Jakab, Pexels License; Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Antwerp 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 Antwerp for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Bethany Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Antwerp 15, Bethany Beach 72: Bethany Beach leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Antwerp 62, Bethany Beach 35: Antwerp leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Antwerp 73, Bethany Beach 10: Antwerp leads by 63 points.
Nightlife. Antwerp 56, Bethany Beach 12: Antwerp leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antwerp 33, Bethany Beach 48: Bethany Beach leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Antwerp 86, Bethany Beach 45: Antwerp leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Antwerp 62, Bethany Beach 66: Bethany Beach leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Antwerp 75, Bethany Beach 33: Antwerp leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Antwerp 70, Bethany Beach 28: Antwerp leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Antwerp 38, Bethany Beach 30: Antwerp leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antwerp 58, Bethany Beach 14: Antwerp leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antwerp 30, Bethany Beach 33: Bethany Beach leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antwerp and Bethany Beach.

Your match

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

Antwerp
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Antwerp in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Bethany Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
95 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AntwerpBethany Beach

Where the figures come from

Antwerp 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.

Antwerp's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Uccle.

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. Antwerp: 1991-2020 normals, Antwerpen / Deurne (5.2 km from centre). Bethany Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Salisbury / Quail Ridge (44.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntwerpBethany Beach
Official languageFrench, German, Dutch-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m3 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)36 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntwerpBethany Beach
City population529,247954
People per km²2,542318
Museums within 10 km380
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km90
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 Antwerp 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.