VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Charleston or Muscat?

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

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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

Choose Muscat for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Muscat’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 Muscat are level on 72.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Muscat 44: Charleston leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Muscat 55: Charleston leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Muscat 14: Charleston leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Muscat 70: Muscat leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Charleston and Muscat are level on 62.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Muscat 52: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Muscat 20: Charleston leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Muscat 42: Charleston leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Muscat 45: Muscat leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Muscat 40: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Muscat.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Muscat
48match

Wins on prices 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
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonMuscat

Where the figures come from

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonMuscat
Official language-Arabic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+4
Emergency number911968
Elevation6 m69 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonMuscat
City population150,2271,421,409
People per km²532406
Museums within 10 km1910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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