VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Bethany Beach or Faro?

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 Bethany Beach for

  • families

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

Choose Faro for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Faro’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. Bethany Beach 72, Faro 74: Faro leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Faro 48: Faro leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Faro 35: Faro leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Faro 32: Faro leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Faro 62: Faro leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Faro 64: Faro leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Faro 60: Bethany Beach leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Faro 60: Faro leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Faro 35: Faro leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Faro 60: Faro leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Faro 30: Faro leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach and Faro are level on 33.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on families with your weighting.

Faro
Best match
49match

Wins on prices 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.

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

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Bethany BeachFaro

Where the figures come from

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. Bethany Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Salisbury / Quail Ridge (44.9 km from centre). Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachFaro
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m10 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachFaro
City population95464,560
People per km²318319
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bethany Beach or Faro 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.