VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License.

Charleston or Osaka?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Osaka for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Osaka’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, Osaka 34: Charleston leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Osaka 91: Osaka leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Osaka 63: Charleston leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Osaka 58: Osaka leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Osaka 97: Osaka leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Osaka 88: Osaka leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Osaka 90: Osaka leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Osaka 60: Osaka leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Osaka.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on getting around and nightlife 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

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonOsaka

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonOsaka
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation6 m20 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonOsaka
City population150,2272,751,862
People per km²53212,340
Museums within 10 km1944
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km06
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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