VacationSelector
The domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Abu DhabiThe domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Abu Dhabi or Charleston?

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 Abu Dhabi for

  • families
  • prices
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Abu Dhabi’s own page.

Choose Charleston for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Charleston’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. Abu Dhabi 78, Charleston 72: Abu Dhabi leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi and Charleston are level on 64.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, Charleston 44: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, Charleston 55: Charleston leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, Charleston 62: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi 82, Charleston 60: Abu Dhabi leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, Charleston 46: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, Charleston 55: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi 38, Charleston 27: Abu Dhabi leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi 32, Charleston 42: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, Charleston 40: Abu Dhabi leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Abu Dhabi and Charleston.

Your match

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

Abu Dhabi
48match

Wins on families and prices with your weighting.

Charleston
Best match
53match

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.

Abu Dhabi in July

43 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiCharleston

Where the figures come from

Abu Dhabi's temperatures are measured 26 km from the centre, at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Abu Dhabi 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. Abu Dhabi: 1991-2020 normals, Abu Dhabi International Airport (25.7 km from centre). Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiCharleston
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m6 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiCharleston
City population1,570,000150,227
People per km²1,615532
Museums within 10 km319
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Abu Dhabi or Charleston 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.