VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Charleston or Sao Paulo?

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
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Charleston leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Sao Paulo 60: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Sao Paulo 48: Charleston leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Sao Paulo 47: Charleston leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Sao Paulo 52: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Sao Paulo 44: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Sao Paulo 25: Charleston leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on nightlife 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
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonSao Paulo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonSao Paulo
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation6 m760 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonSao Paulo
City population150,22711,451,999
People per km²5327,519
Museums within 10 km1990
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 Sao Paulo 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.