VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Ross Castle on Lough Leane, Killarney
KillarneyRoss Castle on Lough Leane

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Killarney by NicholasH, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Charleston or Killarney?

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
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Killarney for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Killarney’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, Killarney 22: Charleston leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Killarney 33: Charleston leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Killarney 28: Charleston leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Killarney 32: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Killarney 82: Killarney leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Killarney 58: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Killarney 42: Charleston leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Killarney 47: Killarney leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Killarney 22: Charleston leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Killarney 35: Killarney leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Killarney 35: Charleston leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Killarney 42: Killarney leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Killarney.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Killarney
40match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices 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

Killarney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
88 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonKillarney

Where the figures come from

Killarney's temperatures are measured 53 km from the centre, at Valentia Observatory.

Killarney 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). Killarney: 1991-2020 normals, Valentia Observatory (52.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonKillarney
Official language-English, Irish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m50 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsKerry Airport (KIR)14 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonKillarney
City population150,22714,412
People per km²532-
Museums within 10 km191
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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