VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Charleston or Johannesburg?

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
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Johannesburg’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, Johannesburg 5: Charleston leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Johannesburg 58: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Johannesburg 56: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston and Johannesburg are level on 55.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Johannesburg 52: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Johannesburg 42: Charleston leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Johannesburg 18: Charleston leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Johannesburg 55: Johannesburg leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Johannesburg 28: Charleston leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Johannesburg.

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 getting around with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

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

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonJohannesburg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonJohannesburg
Official language-English, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m1,753 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonJohannesburg
City population150,2274,803,262
People per km²5322,922
Museums within 10 km1914
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 Johannesburg 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.