VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Charleston or Oslo?

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
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Oslo for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Oslo’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, Oslo 36: Charleston leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Oslo 55: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Oslo 66: Oslo leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Oslo 48: Oslo leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Oslo 82: Oslo leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Oslo 52: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Oslo 63: Oslo leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Oslo 85: Oslo leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Oslo 50: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Oslo 14: Charleston leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Oslo 62: Oslo leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Oslo 60: Oslo leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Oslo.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Oslo
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around 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

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonOslo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonOslo
Official language-Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation6 m23 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonOslo
City population150,227717,710
People per km²532-
Museums within 10 km1960
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston or Oslo 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.