Unscripted Places › Rehoboth Beach › Beach Comparison
Delaware & Maryland Beach Guide Updated 2026
“Every DC-area family has this conversation every spring. Four beaches within two hours of the Beltway, each completely different from the others. We’ve been going to all of them — some since childhood. Here’s the honest answer to which one is right for your trip.”
In this guide
01 The quick answer02 Rehoboth Beach03 Bethany Beach04 Dewey Beach05 Ocean City06 Side by side07 Who should go where08 The Delaware advantage
01 — The quick answer
Four beaches.
Four completely different trips.
If you’re in the DC, Maryland, or Virginia area and trying to decide where to go for a beach week or weekend, you’ve likely encountered the same four names: Rehoboth, Bethany, Dewey, and Ocean City. They’re all within roughly two hours of the Beltway. They all have the Atlantic Ocean. Beyond that, they have almost nothing in common.
Here’s the short version before we go deep.
Our pick for families
Rehoboth Beach
Delaware
Boardwalk, Funland, Grotto’s Pizza, walkable town. The classic DC-area family beach. Best for young kids and anyone who wants the full boardwalk experience.
For peace and quiet
Bethany Beach
Delaware
Small boardwalk, quiet town, no party scene. The Delaware beach for adults, couples, and families who want calm over chaos. Genuinely lovely.
For nightlife
Dewey Beach
Delaware
The Starboard, the Rusty Rudder, live music every night. Delaware’s party beach. Great for 20-somethings and bachelorette weekends. Not for light sleepers.
For maximum everything
Ocean City
Maryland
Nearly three miles of boardwalk, 50+ bars, hundreds of restaurants, rides, arcades. Bigger and louder than all three Delaware beaches combined. For people who want scale.
One important distinction before we go further
Rehoboth, Bethany, and Dewey are all in Delaware. Ocean City is in Maryland. This matters — Delaware has no sales tax (Ocean City does), different beach laws, and a noticeably different character. You’re not just choosing a beach when you make this decision. You’re choosing a state, a scale, and a pace of life for your trip.
02 — Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
The classic.
Fifty years of the same families coming back.
Rehoboth Beach
Delaware — 121 miles from Washington DC
Best for families
Rehoboth is the Nation’s Summer Capital for a reason — DC and Maryland families have been making this drive for generations. One mile of boardwalk, Funland running the same rides since 1962, Grotto’s Pizza in the same spot since 1963, and a walkable downtown that has resisted the urge to become something it’s not. The beach is excellent. The town is charming. The restaurants have grown significantly over the years — Dogfish Head, Henlopen City Oyster House, Bluecoast — without losing the simplicity that made it worth driving to in the first place.
If you’re going with young kids, Rehoboth is the answer. Funland alone — cash-preferred, family-owned, genuinely magical for children — justifies the trip. The boardwalk at night with a Kohr Brothers frozen custard in hand is one of the great simple pleasures of East Coast summer.
Families with young kidsBoardwalk experienceWalkable townAll agesSenior Week destination
We have a full Rehoboth Beach guide — fifty years of summers, where to stay, where to eat, and everything worth knowing.Read the complete Rehoboth guide →
03 — Bethany Beach, Delaware
The quiet resort.
Delaware’s best kept secret for adults.
Bethany Beach
Delaware — 130 miles from Washington DC
Best for adults & peaceful trips
Bethany calls itself “The Quiet Resort” and it has earned the name. A small boardwalk, a compact walkable town, no party scene, no overwhelming crowds. The beach is beautiful and significantly less crowded than Rehoboth in peak season. The restaurants are good — intimate, locally owned, the kind of places you find by walking around rather than consulting a list.
We stayed at a friend’s beach house right on the water in Bethany over Labor Day weekend 2021 — six women, post-Covid, just the beach and the town and the kind of weekend that reminds you what summer is supposed to feel like. Peaceful. Gorgeous. Nobody needing to be anywhere. That’s Bethany. It’s for people who want the beach without the production.
For families with young kids, Rehoboth is the better choice — more to do, the boardwalk, Funland. But for adults, couples, girlfriends weekends, and anyone who finds the Rehoboth boardwalk overstimulating by day three, Bethany is the answer.
Adults & couplesGirlfriends weekendsPeaceful atmosphereFamilies without young kidsShoulder season
“Bethany is what you want Rehoboth to be on a Tuesday morning — quiet, beautiful, unhurried. The difference is that Bethany is like that all the time.”
04 — Dewey Beach, Delaware
Delaware’s party beach.
Same as it ever was.
Dewey Beach
Delaware — 122 miles from Washington DC
Best for nightlife & 20s crowd
Dewey Beach sits between the Atlantic and Rehoboth Bay, just south of Rehoboth, and it has been the Delaware party beach for decades. The Starboard. The Rusty Rudder. The Bottle & Cork. Live music every night, bachelorette parties, the 20-something crowd that shows up every Memorial Day weekend and doesn’t leave until Labor Day. The sign in town reads “Dewey — it’s a way of life” and the regulars mean it.
The beach itself is actually quite good — smaller than Rehoboth, less crowded during the day, dog-friendly before 9am and after 5:30pm. There’s no boardwalk. The town is compact enough to walk everywhere. In the off-season and shoulder months, Dewey has a genuinely relaxed charm that the summer party reputation obscures. But if you’re going in July, know what you’re signing up for.
Not recommended for families with young children or anyone who values sleeping past 9am on a Saturday in summer. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to pick up where the 1980s left off, just with better bars and a Uber app.
Nightlife20s & 30s crowdBachelorette weekendsLive musicDog friendly
05 — Ocean City, Maryland
More of everything.
Maryland’s mega-beach.
Ocean City
Maryland — 147 miles from Washington DC
Best for scale & variety
Ocean City is a different proposition entirely from the Delaware beaches — bigger, louder, and more of everything. Nearly three miles of boardwalk. Hundreds of restaurants. Fifty-plus bars. High-rise hotels stacked to the horizon. Trimper’s Rides celebrating over a century on the boardwalk. Thrasher’s French Fries at 96 years. Fisher’s Popcorn at 88. The National Geographic-rated boardwalk. Ocean City does not do anything small.
It’s not for everyone — the scale can feel overwhelming if you came looking for a quiet beach town. It’s been described as lively, loud, and relentless, which is exactly what its loyal fans love about it and exactly what sends other people back to Rehoboth. But if you’re traveling with a large group, teenagers who need stimulation, or people who want maximum restaurant and bar options, Ocean City delivers in a way the Delaware beaches simply can’t match on volume.
Worth noting: Ocean City is in Maryland, not Delaware. You’ll pay Maryland sales tax. The beach laws are different. The enforcement environment is different. And the drive from DC is slightly longer — budget for the Bay Bridge traffic in summer, which adds unpredictable time to the journey.
Large groupsTeenagersMaximum varietyMarylandLong boardwalk
06 — Side by side
The numbers
at a glance.
Category
Rehoboth
Bethany
Dewey
Ocean City
State
Delaware
Delaware
Delaware
Maryland
Boardwalk
1 mile
Small
None
~3 miles
Sales tax
None (DE)
None (DE)
None (DE)
Yes (MD)
Party scene
Moderate
Low
High
High
Best for families
★★★★★
★★★☆☆
★★☆☆☆
★★★★☆
Best for couples
★★★★☆
★★★★★
★★★☆☆
★★★☆☆
Best for nightlife
★★★☆☆
★☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
★★★★☆
Restaurant variety
Good
Limited
Good
Excellent
Crowd level (July)
Busy
Moderate
Very busy
Very busy
Outlet shopping nearby
Yes — Tanger
Yes — Tanger
Yes — Tanger
Limited
The Delaware tax advantage
Delaware has no sales tax. This applies to everything — restaurants, shops, outlet malls. The Tanger Outlets on Route 1 serve all three Delaware beaches and are a legitimate reason to plan a stop into your trip. Shopping tax-free on name brands saves real money and has been a quiet perk of the Delaware beach experience for decades.
07 — Who should go where
The decision made
simple.
Rehoboth Beach
Go here if you are…
A family with young kids who need Funland and the boardwalk. A first-time Delaware beach visitor. Someone who wants a walkable town with good restaurants. Going for Senior Week. Anyone who grew up going here and wants to go back.
Bethany Beach
Go here if you are…
A couple wanting a quiet getaway. A group of adult friends doing a girlfriends weekend. Families with older kids who don’t need the boardwalk production. Anyone who finds Rehoboth too busy. People who want to actually relax.
Dewey Beach
Go here if you are…
In your 20s or young 30s. Planning a bachelorette weekend. A group of friends who want live music and late nights. Anyone who went in the 80s and wants to see what’s changed (answer: not much). Dog owners who want beach access.
Ocean City
Go here if you are…
Traveling with a large group that needs options. Families with teenagers who need stimulation beyond the beach. Anyone who wants a three-mile boardwalk. People who want maximum restaurant and bar variety. Visitors who’ve done the Delaware beaches and want something bigger.
08 — The Delaware advantage
Why the Delaware beaches
keep winning.
Ocean City has the scale. But scale isn’t always what you’re looking for. The three Delaware beaches — Rehoboth, Bethany, and Dewey — share something that Ocean City can’t replicate: a human scale that keeps the beach the point rather than the backdrop.
No sales tax on anything you buy. Tanger Outlets on Route 1 for tax-free shopping on the way in or out. Three distinct beach personalities within ten minutes of each other — so you can base yourself in Bethany and drive to Rehoboth’s boardwalk for a night, or stay in Rehoboth and check out Dewey’s nightlife without changing hotels.
And the drive from DC is shorter — Rehoboth is about 120 miles from the Beltway versus 147 for Ocean City. On a summer Friday when Route 1 is moving, that difference matters.
“The Delaware beaches have been the right answer for DC families for generations. Not because Ocean City isn’t fun — it is. But because some of us came for the ocean, not the everything else.”
Ready to book Rehoboth? Our complete insider guide covers fifty years of summers — where to stay, where to eat, the boardwalk, and everything worth knowing.Read the complete Rehoboth guide →
Pick the beach that matches the trip you actually want.
The DC-area beach decision doesn’t have a wrong answer — it has four different right answers depending on who you are and what you’re looking for. Young kids who need Funland? Rehoboth. Adults who need quiet? Bethany. Twenty-somethings who need the Starboard? Dewey. Large group that needs 50 bars and three miles of boardwalk? Ocean City.
What we’d tell you from fifty years of making this drive: the Delaware beaches reward loyalty. The same families go back to the same houses in the same towns every summer for decades. That’s not inertia. That’s a place that keeps delivering.
Wherever you end up — the Atlantic will be waiting. It always is.
More Rehoboth Beach guides
Rehoboth Beach: The Complete Insider Guide →Senior Week: What Parents Need to Know →Got Arrested at Rehoboth Beach? →Block Island: The Complete Insider Guide →