VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Charleston or Reykjavik?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: Charleston leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Reykjavik 42: Charleston leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Reykjavik 25: Charleston leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Reykjavik 92: Reykjavik leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Reykjavik 35: Charleston leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Reykjavik 55: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Reykjavik 55: Reykjavik leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Reykjavik 25: Charleston leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Reykjavik 6: Charleston leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 48 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Reykjavik.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness 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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonReykjavik

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonReykjavik
Official language-Icelandic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m8 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonReykjavik
City population150,227138,772
People per km²532569
Museums within 10 km1923
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Reykjavik 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.