VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Buenos Aires 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 Buenos Aires for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Charleston for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Buenos Aires 7, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, Charleston 72: Buenos Aires leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Charleston 64: Buenos Aires leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Charleston 44: Buenos Aires leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Charleston 55: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Charleston 62: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Charleston 60: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Charleston 46: Buenos Aires leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, Charleston 55: Buenos Aires leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, Charleston 27: Buenos Aires leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Charleston 42: Buenos Aires leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, Charleston 40: Charleston leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Buenos Aires
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Charleston
53match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 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
Buenos AiresCharleston

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresCharleston
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number117 or 911911
Elevation25 m6 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresCharleston
City population3,121,707150,227
People per km²15,355532
Museums within 10 km7619
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Buenos Aires 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.