VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or Valparaiso?

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
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Charleston leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Valparaiso 50: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Valparaiso 62: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Valparaiso 33: Charleston leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Valparaiso 44: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Valparaiso 30: Charleston leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Valparaiso 38: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Valparaiso 18: Charleston leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Valparaiso.

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 families with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

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

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonValparaiso
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation6 m21 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonValparaiso
City population150,227296,655
People per km²5326,180
Museums within 10 km1917
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Valparaiso 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.