VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Charleston or Gold Coast?

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
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Gold Coast for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Gold Coast’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, Gold Coast 92: Gold Coast leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Gold Coast 47: Charleston leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Gold Coast 15: Charleston leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Gold Coast 55: Gold Coast leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Gold Coast 82: Gold Coast leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Gold Coast 52: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Gold Coast 89: Gold Coast leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Gold Coast 45: Charleston leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Gold Coast 40: Charleston leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Gold Coast 35: Gold Coast leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Gold Coast 30: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Gold Coast 42: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Gold Coast.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Gold Coast
52match

Wins on families 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

Gold Coast in July

22 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonGold Coast

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonGold Coast
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+10
Emergency number911000
Elevation6 m12 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonGold Coast
City population150,227607,665
People per km²532433
Museums within 10 km192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Gold Coast 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.