VacationSelector
The CEC Palace on Calea Victoriei, Bucharest
BucharestThe CEC Palace on Calea Victoriei
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row

Photos: Bucharest by Jorge Láscar, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bucharest 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 Bucharest for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Charleston for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • 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. Bucharest 8, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Bucharest 55, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Bucharest 58, Charleston 64: Charleston leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Bucharest 70, Charleston 44: Bucharest leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bucharest 45, Charleston 55: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Bucharest 52, Charleston 62: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Bucharest 52, Charleston 60: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Bucharest 52, Charleston 46: Bucharest leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Bucharest 45, Charleston 55: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Bucharest 70, Charleston 27: Bucharest leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bucharest 60, Charleston 42: Bucharest leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bucharest 47, Charleston 40: Bucharest leads by 7 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bucharest and Charleston.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Bucharest
51match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Charleston
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.

Bucharest in July

30 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
10 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
BucharestCharleston

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bucharest: 1991-2020 normals, Bucuresti / Imh (10 km from centre). Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBucharestCharleston
Official languageRomanian-
CurrencyRomanian Leu (RON)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation70 m6 m
Main airportBucharest Henri Coandă International Airport (OTP)18 km from centre121 non-stop destinationsCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBucharestCharleston
City population1,716,961150,227
People per km²7,597532
Museums within 10 km4119
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 Bucharest 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.