VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bologna 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 Bologna for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • prices

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

Choose Charleston for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Bologna 30, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Charleston 72: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Charleston 64: Bologna leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Charleston 44: Bologna leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Charleston 55: Charleston leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Charleston 62: Bologna leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Charleston 60: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Charleston 46: Bologna leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna and Charleston are level on 55.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Charleston 27: Bologna leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Charleston 42: Bologna leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna and Charleston are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Charleston.

Your match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bologna in July

32 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
BolognaCharleston

Where the figures come from

Bologna 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.

Bologna's sunshine is measured 82 km from the centre, at Cervia.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre). Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaCharleston
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation54 m6 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaCharleston
City population387,971150,227
People per km²2,754532
Museums within 10 km6819
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Bologna 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.