VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; London by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Charleston or London?

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
  • prices

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

Choose London for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on London’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, London 25: Charleston leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, London 84: London leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, London 94: London leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, London 88: London leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, London 57: London leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, London 90: London leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, London 82: London leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, London 85: London leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, London 95: London leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, London 15: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, London 98: London leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston and London are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and London.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

London
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonLondon

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonLondon
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation6 m4 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonLondon
City population150,2278,799,728
People per km²5325,598
Museums within 10 km19216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
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 London 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.