VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
Ferries off the Kordon promenade, Izmir
IzmirFerries off the Kordon promenade

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Izmir by Toygar Par, Pexels License.

Bethany Beach or Izmir?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Izmir for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Izmir’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, Izmir 62: Bethany Beach leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Izmir 72: Izmir leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Izmir 55: Izmir leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Izmir 60: Izmir leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Izmir 66: Izmir leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Izmir 86: Izmir leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Izmir 55: Bethany Beach leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Izmir 63: Izmir leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Izmir 55: Izmir leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Izmir 66: Izmir leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Izmir 48: Izmir leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Izmir 57: Izmir leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bethany Beach and Izmir.

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Izmir
Best match
62match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights 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

Izmir in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Bethany BeachIzmir

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). Izmir: 1991-2020 normals, Izmir (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachIzmir
Official language-Turkish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m2 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsAdnan Menderes International Airport (ADB)13 km from centre120 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachIzmir
City population9544,493,242
People per km²3184,760
Museums within 10 km029
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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