VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Charleston or Cologne?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Cologne for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Cologne’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, Cologne 14: Charleston leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Cologne 52: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Cologne 67: Cologne leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Cologne 66: Cologne leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Cologne 56: Cologne leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Cologne 80: Cologne leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Cologne 70: Cologne leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Cologne 74: Cologne leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Cologne 57: Cologne leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Cologne 46: Cologne leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Cologne 68: Cologne leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Cologne 50: Cologne leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Cologne.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonCologne

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonCologne
Official language-German
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m59 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonCologne
City population150,2271,025,523
People per km²5322,532
Museums within 10 km1940
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
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 Cologne 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.