VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or Oaxaca?

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
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Oaxaca for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Oaxaca’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, Oaxaca 5: Charleston leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Oaxaca 84: Oaxaca leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Oaxaca 74: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Oaxaca 40: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Oaxaca 62: Oaxaca leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Oaxaca 65: Oaxaca leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Oaxaca 40: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Oaxaca 55: Oaxaca leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Oaxaca 62: Oaxaca leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Oaxaca 77: Oaxaca leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Oaxaca 38: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Oaxaca 50: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Oaxaca.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Oaxaca
54match

Wins on prices and food and drink 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

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonOaxaca

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonOaxaca
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m1,555 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonOaxaca
City population150,227258,913
People per km²5323,028
Museums within 10 km1910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Oaxaca 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.