VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Charleston or San Juan?

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

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • food and drink

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

Choose San Juan for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on San Juan’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, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, San Juan 66: Charleston leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston and San Juan are level on 64.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, San Juan 52: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, San Juan 58: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, San Juan 38: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, San Juan 50: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, San Juan 38: San Juan leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, San Juan 55: San Juan leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston and San Juan are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and San Juan.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

San Juan
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife 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

San Juan in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonSan Juan
Official language-Spanish, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m3 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonSan Juan
City population150,227342,259
People per km²5322,847
Museums within 10 km1918
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston or San Juan 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.