VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License.

Charleston or Lisbon?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Lisbon for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Lisbon’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, Lisbon 50: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Lisbon 78: Lisbon leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Lisbon 82: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Lisbon 62: Lisbon leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Lisbon 66: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Lisbon 55: Lisbon leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Lisbon 36: Charleston leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Lisbon.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on nightlife 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

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonLisbon

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

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonLisbon
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m100 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonLisbon
City population150,227545,796
People per km²5325,453
Museums within 10 km1980
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
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 Lisbon 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.