VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Charleston or Tromso?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Tromso’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, Tromso 8: Charleston leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Tromso 36: Charleston leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Tromso 27: Charleston leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Tromso 38: Charleston leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Tromso 14: Charleston leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Tromso 45: Charleston leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Tromso 15: Charleston leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Tromso 11: Charleston leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Tromso 32: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Tromso 38: Charleston leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Tromso.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Tromso in July

16 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
24 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonTromso
Official language-Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation6 m20 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonTromso
City population150,22779,943
People per km²53232
Museums within 10 km198
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 Tromso 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.