VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or Guadalajara?

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
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Guadalajara for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Guadalajara’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, Guadalajara 5: Charleston leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Guadalajara 75: Guadalajara leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Guadalajara 62: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Guadalajara 68: Guadalajara leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston and Guadalajara are level on 55.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Guadalajara 66: Guadalajara leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Guadalajara 55: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Guadalajara 40: Charleston leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Guadalajara 78: Guadalajara leads by 51 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Guadalajara 35: Charleston leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Guadalajara.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Guadalajara
55match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonGuadalajara

Where the figures come from

Guadalajara 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). Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonGuadalajara
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m1,536 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonGuadalajara
City population150,2271,385,621
People per km²5329,556
Museums within 10 km1917
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

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