VacationSelector
Skiers among snow-covered firs, Beaver Creek
Beaver CreekSkiers among snow-covered firs
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row

Photos: Beaver Creek by Joe Lin, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Beaver Creek 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 Beaver Creek for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Beaver Creek’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. Beaver Creek 6, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Beaver Creek 38, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Beaver Creek 7, Charleston 64: Charleston leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Beaver Creek 12, Charleston 44: Charleston leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beaver Creek 90, Charleston 55: Beaver Creek leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Beaver Creek 40, Charleston 62: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Beaver Creek 62, Charleston 60: Beaver Creek leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Beaver Creek 45, Charleston 46: Charleston leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Beaver Creek 22, Charleston 55: Charleston leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Beaver Creek 5, Charleston 27: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beaver Creek 36, Charleston 42: Charleston leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beaver Creek 55, Charleston 40: Beaver Creek leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beaver Creek and Charleston.

Your match

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

Beaver Creek
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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.

Beaver Creek in July

29 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Beaver CreekCharleston

Where the figures come from

Beaver Creek's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Eagle County / Gypsum.

Beaver Creek's station stands 268 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Beaver Creek 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. Beaver Creek: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Eagle County / Gypsum (33.8 km from centre). Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeaver CreekCharleston
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
Elevation2,264 m6 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)34 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeaver CreekCharleston
City population-150,227
People per km²-532
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 Beaver Creek or Charleston somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. 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.