VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Alicante 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 Alicante for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose Charleston for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • 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. Alicante 82, Charleston 72: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Charleston 64: Charleston leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Charleston 44: Alicante leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Charleston 55: Alicante leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Charleston 62: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Charleston 60: Alicante leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Charleston 46: Alicante leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Charleston 55: Charleston leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Charleston 27: Alicante leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Charleston 42: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante and Charleston are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Charleston.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Charleston
53match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteCharleston

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteCharleston
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m6 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteCharleston
City population366,221150,227
People per km²1,819532
Museums within 10 km819
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.