VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or La Romana?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose La Romana for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on La Romana’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, La Romana 84: La Romana leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, La Romana 38: Charleston leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, La Romana 24: Charleston leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, La Romana 30: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, La Romana 62: La Romana leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, La Romana 52: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, La Romana 56: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, La Romana 24: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, La Romana 28: Charleston leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, La Romana 50: La Romana leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, La Romana 17: Charleston leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, La Romana 44: La Romana leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and La Romana.

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.

La Romana
42match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

La Romana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonLa Romana

Where the figures come from

La Romana's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Punta Cana.

La Romana 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). La Romana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (65.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonLa Romana
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m10 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonLa Romana
City population150,227139,238
People per km²532512
Museums within 10 km190
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 La Romana 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.