VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Charleston or Galle?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Galle for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Galle’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, Galle 80: Galle leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Galle 50: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Galle 55: Charleston leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Galle 18: Charleston leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Galle 66: Galle leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Galle 50: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Galle 42: Charleston leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Galle 35: Charleston leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Galle 33: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Galle 72: Galle leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Galle 10: Charleston leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Galle 70: Galle leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Galle.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Galle
48match

Wins on prices and wellness 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

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonGalle

Where the figures come from

Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonGalle
Official language-Tamil, Sinhala
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number911Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation6 m0 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonGalle
City population150,22793,118
People per km²532-
Museums within 10 km192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Galle 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.