VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

Charleston or Seattle?

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
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Seattle for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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, Seattle 30: Charleston leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Seattle 66: Charleston leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Seattle 50: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Seattle 87: Seattle leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Seattle 55: Charleston leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Seattle 64: Seattle leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Seattle 60: Seattle leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Seattle 52: Charleston leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Seattle 22: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston and Seattle are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Seattle.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Seattle
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts 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

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonSeattle

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonSeattle
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m40 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonSeattle
City population150,227737,015
People per km²5321,996
Museums within 10 km1927
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Seattle 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.