VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Charleston or Hong Kong?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Hong Kong for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Hong Kong’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, Hong Kong 50: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Hong Kong 90: Hong Kong leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Hong Kong 60: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Hong Kong 68: Hong Kong leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Hong Kong 80: Hong Kong leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Hong Kong 68: Hong Kong leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Hong Kong 75: Hong Kong leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Hong Kong 97: Hong Kong leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Hong Kong 88: Hong Kong leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Charleston and Hong Kong are level on 27.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Hong Kong 55: Hong Kong leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Hong Kong 42: Hong Kong leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Hong Kong.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonHong Kong

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonHong Kong
Official language-Standard Chinese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Hong Kong Dollar (HKD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911999
Elevation6 m7 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonHong Kong
City population150,2277,413,070
People per km²532-
Museums within 10 km1939
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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