VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License.

Charleston or Chicago?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Chicago for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Chicago’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, Chicago 50: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Chicago 80: Chicago leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Chicago 78: Chicago leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Chicago 77: Chicago leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Chicago 48: Charleston leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Chicago 42: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Chicago 78: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Chicago 72: Chicago leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Chicago 70: Chicago leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Chicago 33: Chicago leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Chicago 82: Chicago leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Chicago 33: Charleston leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Chicago.

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.

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonChicago

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonChicago
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m179 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonChicago
City population150,2272,746,388
People per km²5324,529
Museums within 10 km1944
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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