VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or Monaco?

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

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Monaco for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Monaco’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, Monaco 68: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Monaco 57: Charleston leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Monaco 55: Charleston leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Monaco 48: Monaco leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Monaco 70: Monaco leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Monaco 84: Monaco leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Charleston and Monaco are level on 60.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Monaco 78: Monaco leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Monaco 52: Charleston leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Monaco 3: Charleston leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Monaco 63: Monaco leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Monaco 55: Monaco leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Monaco.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Monaco
Best match
58match

Wins on getting around 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

Monaco in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonMonaco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonMonaco
Official language-French
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCEF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m68 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonMonaco
City population150,22738,857
People per km²53218,503
Museums within 10 km1914
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston or Monaco 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.