VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or Montevideo?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping
  • beaches

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

Choose Montevideo for

  • prices
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Montevideo’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, Montevideo 55: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Montevideo 57: Charleston leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Montevideo 54: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Montevideo 50: Montevideo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Montevideo 34: Charleston leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Montevideo 55: Charleston leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Montevideo 55: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Montevideo 54: Montevideo leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Montevideo 36: Charleston leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Montevideo 42: Montevideo leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Montevideo 57: Montevideo leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Montevideo 38: Charleston leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Montevideo.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and shopping with your weighting.

Montevideo
49match

Wins on prices and live music and the arts 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

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonMontevideo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonMontevideo
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m41 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonMontevideo
City population150,2271,302,954
People per km²5321,785
Museums within 10 km1936
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Montevideo 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.