VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
The Iguazu Falls in the green jungle, Puerto Iguazu
Puerto IguazuThe Iguazu Falls in the green jungle

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Puerto Iguazu by Muhammed Ballan, Pexels License.

Bethany Beach or Puerto Iguazu?

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
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Puerto Iguazu for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Iguazu’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, Puerto Iguazu 5: Bethany Beach leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Puerto Iguazu 28: Bethany Beach leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Puerto Iguazu 9: Bethany Beach leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Puerto Iguazu 14: Puerto Iguazu leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Puerto Iguazu 95: Puerto Iguazu leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Puerto Iguazu 33: Bethany Beach leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Puerto Iguazu 55: Bethany Beach leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Puerto Iguazu 54: Puerto Iguazu leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Puerto Iguazu 17: Bethany Beach leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Puerto Iguazu 48: Puerto Iguazu leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Puerto Iguazu 7: Bethany Beach leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Puerto Iguazu 34: Puerto Iguazu leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bethany Beach and Puerto Iguazu.

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
Best match
36match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Puerto Iguazu
33match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Puerto Iguazu in July

22 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
103 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Bethany BeachPuerto Iguazu

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). Puerto Iguazu: 1991-2020 normals, Iguazu Aerodrome (17.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachPuerto Iguazu
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation3 m162 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsCataratas Del Iguazú International Airport (IGR)18 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachPuerto Iguazu
City population95454,903
People per km²318-
Museums within 10 km00
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 Puerto Iguazu 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.