VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Charleston or Interlaken?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Interlaken for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Interlaken’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, Interlaken 30: Charleston leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Interlaken 25: Charleston leads by 47 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Interlaken 8: Charleston leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Interlaken 15: Charleston leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Interlaken 97: Interlaken leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Interlaken 78: Interlaken leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Interlaken 72: Interlaken leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Interlaken 80: Interlaken leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Interlaken 22: Charleston leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Interlaken 8: Charleston leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Interlaken 15: Charleston leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston and Interlaken are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Interlaken.

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.

Interlaken
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around 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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonInterlaken

Where the figures come from

Interlaken has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonInterlaken
Official language-French, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m571 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonInterlaken
City population150,2276,123
People per km²5321,424
Museums within 10 km193
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 Interlaken 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.