VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bethany Beach or Guilin?

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

  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Guilin for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Guilin’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, Guilin 8: Bethany Beach leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Guilin 45: Guilin leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Guilin 40: Guilin leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Guilin 30: Guilin leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Guilin 88: Guilin leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Guilin 56: Guilin leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Guilin 45: Bethany Beach leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Guilin 45: Guilin leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach and Guilin are level on 28.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Guilin 78: Guilin leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Guilin 30: Guilin leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Guilin 40: Guilin leads by 7 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Guilin
Best match
44match

Wins on prices 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.

Bethany Beach in July

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

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Bethany BeachGuilin

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). Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachGuilin
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation3 m153 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachGuilin
City population9544,931,137
People per km²318-
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

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