VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License.

Charleston or Dubai?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Dubai for

  • shopping
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Dubai’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, Dubai 80: Dubai leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Dubai 76: Dubai leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Dubai 40: Charleston leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Dubai 62: Dubai leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Dubai 25: Charleston leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Dubai 45: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Dubai 42: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Dubai 32: Dubai leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Dubai 40: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Dubai 46: Dubai leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Dubai.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Charleston
53match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Dubai
54match

Wins on shopping and families 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

Dubai in July

42 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonDubai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonDubai
Official language-Arabic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)UAE Dirham (AED)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+4
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m0 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonDubai
City population150,2273,944,751
People per km²532-
Museums within 10 km1914
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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