VacationSelector
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row

Photos: Budapest by Perituss, CC0; Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Budapest 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 Budapest for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Charleston for

  • beaches
  • 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. Budapest 25, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Budapest 63, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Budapest 80, Charleston 64: Budapest leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Budapest 78, Charleston 44: Budapest leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Budapest 58, Charleston 55: Budapest leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Budapest 68, Charleston 62: Budapest leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Budapest 62, Charleston 60: Budapest leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Budapest 78, Charleston 46: Budapest leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Budapest and Charleston are level on 55.
Affordability. Budapest 62, Charleston 27: Budapest leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Budapest 76, Charleston 42: Budapest leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Budapest 98, Charleston 40: Budapest leads by 58 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Budapest and Charleston.

Your match

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

Budapest
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and prices 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.

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
BudapestCharleston

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre). Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBudapestCharleston
Official languageHungarian-
CurrencyForint (HUF)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation117 m6 m
Main airportBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinationsCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBudapestCharleston
City population1,675,777150,227
People per km²3,191532
Museums within 10 km8119
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 Budapest 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.