VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
The 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre, Fort Myers
Fort MyersThe 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Fort Myers by Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bethany Beach or Fort Myers?

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

  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Fort Myers for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Fort Myers’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, Fort Myers 77: Fort Myers leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Fort Myers 40: Fort Myers leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Fort Myers 32: Fort Myers leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Fort Myers 32: Fort Myers leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Fort Myers 63: Fort Myers leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Fort Myers 50: Fort Myers leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Fort Myers 62: Bethany Beach leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Fort Myers 15: Bethany Beach leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Fort Myers 38: Fort Myers leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Fort Myers 38: Fort Myers leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Fort Myers 36: Fort Myers leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Fort Myers 35: Fort Myers leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bethany Beach and Fort Myers.

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

Fort Myers
Best match
43match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Fort Myers in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
220 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Bethany BeachFort Myers

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.

Fort Myers 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). Fort Myers: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Myers / Page Park (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachFort Myers
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m3 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsSouthwest Florida International Airport (RSW)12 km from centre79 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachFort Myers
City population95486,395
People per km²318681
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months10 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bethany Beach or Fort Myers 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.