VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or Santiago de Compostela?

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
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Santiago de Compostela for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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, Santiago de Compostela 32: Charleston leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Santiago de Compostela 68: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Santiago de Compostela 45: Santiago de Compostela leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Santiago de Compostela 62: Santiago de Compostela leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Santiago de Compostela 72: Santiago de Compostela leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Santiago de Compostela 42: Charleston leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Santiago de Compostela 35: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Santiago de Compostela 64: Santiago de Compostela leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Santiago de Compostela 40: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Santiago de Compostela 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Santiago de Compostela.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

Santiago de Compostela
54match

Wins on prices and getting around 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

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonSantiago de Compostela

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonSantiago de Compostela
Official language-Spanish
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 m260 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonSantiago de Compostela
City population150,227100,965
People per km²532459
Museums within 10 km196
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Santiago de Compostela 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.