@metadog Dewey Beach is probably not what you’re looking for. It’s not really family oriented. Dewey is the party beach. Mostly people in their twenties and early, mid-thirties, no kids, renting “group houses,” 15 or so people rent a house for a week, or two weeks or the whole summer, and maybe if you don’t have a lot of money you can pay enough to get the couch but it doesn’t matter because you’re only 25 and you won’t be sleeping on the couch as much as you’ll be passed out on. Dewey is that kind of beach.
Bethany is very nice though. It’s my favorite of the Delaware beaches. It’s kind of Rehoboth light. It has the beachy stuff, the boardwalk, the pizza and taffy and vinegar fries and kite stores and tacky shops that sell beach crap. It’s also close to the Delaware Seashore State Park, a little bit south of it and south of the bays you can avoid the traffic around Rehoboth and the outlet malls and it it’s close enough to Ocean City, MD that you can make that a day trip if if you want to. There’s also Fenwick Island though I haven’t spent much time there. It is the southernmost beach town in DE. Lewes is also nice; a nice place for a family to vacation. We used to rent a house there for two weeks in the summer when I was growing up but it’s much further north, well as much further north as anything can be at the Delaware shore.
Here’s a link to the Bethany Beach/Fenwick Island Chambers of Commerce visitors guide
Geez, who knew I would ever end up being such a Delaware beaches booster?
And, of course, there’s always tax-free shopping in Delaware, for those rainy days. No sales tax here, you gotta like that.