VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License.

Charleston or Cork?

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
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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

Choose Cork for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Cork’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, Cork 25: Charleston leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Cork 58: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Cork 40: Charleston leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Cork 40: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Cork 62: Cork leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Cork 68: Cork leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Cork 50: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Cork 58: Cork leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Cork 40: Charleston leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Cork 33: Cork leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Cork 45: Cork leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Cork 22: Charleston leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Cork.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Cork
45match

Wins on getting around 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.

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

Cork in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonCork

Where the figures come from

Cork's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Cork: 1991-2020 normals, Cork Airport (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonCork
Official language-English, Irish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m0 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonCork
City population150,227222,333
People per km²5325,961
Museums within 10 km195
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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