VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bethany Beach or Riga?

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 Riga for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Bethany Beach leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Riga 52: Riga leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Riga 66: Riga leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Riga 52: Riga leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Riga 55: Riga leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Riga 60: Riga leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Riga 50: Bethany Beach leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Riga 68: Riga leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Riga 45: Riga leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Riga 62: Riga leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Riga 65: Riga leads by 51 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Riga 50: Riga leads by 17 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Riga
Best match
55match

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

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Bethany BeachRiga

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). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachRiga
Official language-Latvian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m6 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachRiga
City population954588,911
People per km²318-
Museums within 10 km012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Riga 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.