VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Charleston or Los Angeles?

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

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Los Angeles for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Angeles’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, Los Angeles 60: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Los Angeles 66: Los Angeles leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Los Angeles 67: Los Angeles leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Los Angeles 60: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Los Angeles 25: Charleston leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Los Angeles 24: Charleston leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Los Angeles 83: Los Angeles leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Los Angeles.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors 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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °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
CharlestonLos Angeles

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonLos Angeles
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 m106 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonLos Angeles
City population150,2273,898,747
People per km²5322,994
Museums within 10 km1939
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Los Angeles 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.