VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
Bell Rock outside Sedona, Sedona
SedonaBell Rock outside Sedona

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

Bethany Beach or Sedona?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Sedona for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Sedona’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, Sedona 16: Bethany Beach leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Sedona 33: Bethany Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Sedona 20: Sedona leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Sedona 8: Bethany Beach leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Sedona 93: Sedona leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Sedona 55: Sedona leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Sedona 42: Bethany Beach leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Sedona 22: Bethany Beach leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Sedona 34: Sedona leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Sedona 18: Bethany Beach leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Sedona 13: Bethany Beach leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Sedona 82: Sedona leads by 49 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Sedona
36match

Wins on wellness 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

Sedona in July

34 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
51 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Bethany BeachSedona

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.

Sedona's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Sedona 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). Sedona: 2009-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sedona / West Sedona (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachSedona
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m1,319 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)160 km from centre149 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachSedona
City population9549,684
People per km²318195
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Sedona 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.