VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Charleston or Santo Domingo?

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

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Santo Domingo for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Santo Domingo’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, Santo Domingo 58: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Santo Domingo 58: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston and Santo Domingo are level on 64.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Santo Domingo 36: Charleston leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Santo Domingo 44: Charleston leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Santo Domingo 40: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Santo Domingo 40: Charleston leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Santo Domingo 44: Charleston leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Santo Domingo 46: Santo Domingo leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Santo Domingo 22: Charleston leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Santo Domingo.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Santo Domingo
49match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonSanto Domingo

Where the figures come from

Santo Domingo 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonSanto Domingo
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m14 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonSanto Domingo
City population150,2272,201,941
People per km²5321,691
Museums within 10 km1910
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 Santo Domingo 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.