VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or Nairobi?

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
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Nairobi for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Nairobi’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, Nairobi 4: Charleston leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Nairobi 48: Charleston leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Nairobi 35: Charleston leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Nairobi 58: Nairobi leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Nairobi 84: Nairobi leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Nairobi 28: Charleston leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Nairobi 55: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Nairobi 20: Charleston leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Nairobi 45: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Nairobi 60: Nairobi leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Nairobi 35: Charleston leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Nairobi 25: Charleston leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Nairobi.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Nairobi
41match

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

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonNairobi

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonNairobi
Official language-English, Swahili
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number911Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation6 m1,661 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonNairobi
City population150,2275,545,000
People per km²5327,967
Museums within 10 km194
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Nairobi 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.