VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Charleston or Rotterdam?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotterdam’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, Rotterdam 27: Charleston leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Rotterdam 52: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Rotterdam 58: Charleston leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Rotterdam 52: Rotterdam leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Rotterdam 44: Charleston leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Rotterdam 85: Rotterdam leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Rotterdam 66: Rotterdam leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Rotterdam 78: Rotterdam leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston and Rotterdam are level on 55.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Rotterdam 38: Rotterdam leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Rotterdam 42: Rotterdam leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Rotterdam.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Rotterdam
55match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonRotterdam

Where the figures come from

Rotterdam has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonRotterdam
Official language-Dutch
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m10 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonRotterdam
City population150,227664,311
People per km²5322,080
Museums within 10 km1940
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
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 Rotterdam 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.