VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Charleston or Guilin?

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
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Guilin for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Guilin’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, Guilin 8: Charleston leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Guilin 45: Charleston leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Guilin 40: Charleston leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Guilin 30: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Guilin 88: Guilin leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Guilin 56: Charleston leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Guilin 45: Charleston leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Guilin 45: Charleston leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Guilin 28: Charleston leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Guilin 78: Guilin leads by 51 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Guilin 30: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston and Guilin are level on 40.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Guilin
44match

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
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonGuilin

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonGuilin
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation6 m153 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonGuilin
City population150,2274,931,137
People per km²532-
Museums within 10 km191
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Guilin 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.