VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Charleston or Hurghada?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Hurghada for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Hurghada’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, Hurghada 84: Hurghada leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Hurghada 34: Charleston leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Hurghada 14: Charleston leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Hurghada 40: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Hurghada 72: Hurghada leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Hurghada 30: Charleston leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Hurghada 62: Hurghada leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Hurghada 22: Charleston leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Hurghada 24: Charleston leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Hurghada 80: Hurghada leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Hurghada 10: Charleston leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Hurghada 44: Hurghada leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Hurghada.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

Hurghada
43match

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

Hurghada in July

37 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonHurghada

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonHurghada
Official language-Arabic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation6 m11 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonHurghada
City population150,227214,247
People per km²532-
Museums within 10 km191
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Hurghada 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.