VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0.

Charleston or Florianopolis?

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

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • getting around

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

Choose Florianopolis for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Florianopolis’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, Florianopolis 85: Florianopolis leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Florianopolis 58: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Florianopolis 33: Charleston leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Florianopolis 78: Florianopolis leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Florianopolis 50: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Charleston and Florianopolis are level on 60.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Florianopolis 28: Charleston leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Florianopolis 33: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Florianopolis 28: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Florianopolis 45: Florianopolis leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Florianopolis.

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 culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Florianopolis
52match

Wins on prices 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

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonFlorianopolis

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonFlorianopolis
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation6 m3 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonFlorianopolis
City population150,227587,486
People per km²532870
Museums within 10 km1911
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston or Florianopolis 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.