VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bethany Beach or Newport 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 Bethany Beach for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • beaches

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport 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. Bethany Beach 72, Newport Beach 70: Bethany Beach leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Newport Beach 50: Newport Beach leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Newport Beach 20: Newport Beach leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Newport Beach 33: Newport Beach leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Newport Beach 20: Bethany Beach leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Newport Beach 15: Bethany Beach leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Newport Beach 46: Newport Beach leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Newport Beach 44: Newport Beach leads by 11 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Newport Beach
Best match
48match

Wins on shopping 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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Bethany BeachNewport Beach

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). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachNewport Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m3 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachNewport Beach
City population95485,239
People per km²318622
Museums within 10 km04
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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