VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or Quito?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Quito for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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, Quito 5: Charleston leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Quito 54: Charleston leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Quito 77: Quito leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Quito 40: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Quito 86: Quito leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Quito 55: Charleston leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Quito 32: Charleston leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Quito 45: Charleston leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Quito 40: Charleston leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Quito 78: Quito leads by 51 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Quito 38: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Quito 44: Quito leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Quito.

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 families with your weighting.

Quito
50match

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonQuito

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonQuito
Official language-Spanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m2,850 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonQuito
City population150,2271,763,275
People per km²5324,735
Museums within 10 km1916
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 Quito 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.