VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License.

Charleston or Laguna Beach?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Laguna Beach for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Laguna Beach’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 and Laguna Beach are level on 72.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Laguna Beach 40: Charleston leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Laguna Beach 27: Charleston leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Laguna Beach 18: Charleston leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Laguna Beach 73: Laguna Beach leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Laguna Beach 72: Laguna Beach leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Laguna Beach 68: Laguna Beach leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Laguna Beach 33: Charleston leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Laguna Beach 46: Charleston leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Laguna Beach 12: Charleston leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Laguna Beach 40: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Laguna Beach 47: Laguna Beach leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Laguna Beach.

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.

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonLaguna Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonLaguna Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m6 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonLaguna Beach
City population150,22723,032
People per km²532907
Museums within 10 km192
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 Laguna Beach 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.