VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta
JakartaThe Istiqlal Mosque

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Jakarta by Antonyus Bunjamin, Pexels License.

Charleston or Jakarta?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Jakarta for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Jakarta’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, Jakarta 28: Charleston leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Jakarta 78: Jakarta leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Jakarta 48: Charleston leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Jakarta 66: Jakarta leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Jakarta 30: Charleston leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Jakarta 45: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Jakarta 50: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Jakarta 36: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Jakarta 64: Jakarta leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Jakarta 80: Jakarta leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston and Jakarta are level on 42.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Jakarta 46: Jakarta leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Jakarta.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Jakarta
51match

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
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Jakarta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonJakarta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Jakarta: 1991-2020 normals, Jakarta / Observatory (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonJakarta
Official language-Indonesian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m91 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSoekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)20 km from centre89 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonJakarta
City population150,22711,135,191
People per km²53216,821
Museums within 10 km1944
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 Jakarta 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.