VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Charleston or Tokyo?

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

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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, Tokyo 40: Charleston leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Tokyo 68: Tokyo leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 44 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Tokyo 48: Tokyo leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 38 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Tokyo.

Your match

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

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonTokyo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonTokyo
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation6 m6 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonTokyo
City population150,22714,264,798
People per km²5326,501
Museums within 10 km19192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston or Tokyo 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.