VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or Marseille?

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

  • families
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Marseille for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Marseille’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 Marseille are level on 72.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Marseille 67: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Marseille 63: Charleston leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Marseille 57: Marseille leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Marseille 83: Marseille leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Marseille 86: Marseille leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Marseille 50: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Marseille 57: Marseille leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Marseille 47: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Marseille 45: Marseille leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Marseille 56: Marseille leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Marseille 37: Charleston leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Marseille.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on families and shopping with your weighting.

Marseille
Best match
60match

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
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Marseille in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonMarseille

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonMarseille
Official language-French
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m0 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonMarseille
City population150,227886,040
People per km²5323,683
Museums within 10 km1927
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston or Marseille 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.