VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Alta, Utah 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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Charleston for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Alta, Utah 3, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 69 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 57 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Charleston 64: Charleston leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Charleston 44: Charleston leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Charleston 55: Alta, Utah leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Charleston 62: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Charleston 60: Charleston leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Charleston 46: Charleston leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Charleston 55: Charleston leads by 51 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Charleston 27: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Charleston 42: Charleston leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Charleston 40: Charleston leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Charleston.

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahCharleston

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahCharleston
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,610 m6 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahCharleston
City population228150,227
People per km²19532
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Charleston somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.