VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Charleston or Madrid?

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 Madrid for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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, Madrid 5: Charleston leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Madrid 60: Madrid leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Madrid 50: Madrid leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Madrid 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 Madrid.

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.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and getting around 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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonMadrid

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonMadrid
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m663 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonMadrid
City population150,2273,506,730
People per km²5325,801
Museums within 10 km1988
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 Madrid 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.