VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Charleston for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • families

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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Charleston 64: Antigua Guatemala leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Charleston 44: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Charleston 55: Antigua Guatemala leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Charleston 62: Charleston leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Charleston 60: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Charleston 46: Antigua Guatemala leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Charleston 55: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Charleston 27: Antigua Guatemala leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Charleston 42: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Charleston 40: Antigua Guatemala leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Charleston.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaCharleston

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaCharleston
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123911
Elevation1,582 m6 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaCharleston
City population59,091150,227
People per km²-532
Museums within 10 km219
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Antigua Guatemala 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.