VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Charleston or Chiang Mai?

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 Charleston for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Chiang Mai’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. Charleston 72, Chiang Mai 6: Charleston leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Chiang Mai 65: Chiang Mai leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Chiang Mai 45: Chiang Mai leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Chiang Mai 73: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Chiang Mai 48: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Chiang Mai 55: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Chiang Mai 38: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Chiang Mai 30: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Chiang Mai in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonChiang Mai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonChiang Mai
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation6 m310 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonChiang Mai
City population150,2271,198,000
People per km²5322,958
Museums within 10 km196
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston or Chiang Mai 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). 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. 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.