VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or Salt Lake City?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’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, Salt Lake City 12: Charleston leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Salt Lake City 40: Charleston leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Salt Lake City 42: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Salt Lake City 30: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Salt Lake City 34: Charleston leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Salt Lake City 72: Salt Lake City leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Salt Lake City 42: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Salt Lake City 36: Charleston leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Salt Lake City 40: Salt Lake City leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Salt Lake City 55: Salt Lake City leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Salt Lake City 38: Charleston leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Salt Lake City.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices 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
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonSalt Lake City

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonSalt Lake City
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m1,288 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonSalt Lake City
City population150,227199,723
People per km²532690
Museums within 10 km1912
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Salt Lake City 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.