VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The British Columbia Parliament Buildings, Victoria
VictoriaThe British Columbia Parliament Buildings

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Victoria by Guilice, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Charleston or Victoria?

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
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Victoria for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria’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, Victoria 28: Charleston leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Victoria 50: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Victoria 42: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Victoria 30: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Victoria 77: Victoria leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Victoria 54: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Victoria 62: Victoria leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Victoria 60: Victoria leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Victoria 40: Charleston leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Victoria 34: Victoria leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Victoria 40: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Victoria 48: Victoria leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Victoria.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Victoria
47match

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

Victoria in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonVictoria

Where the figures come from

Victoria's sunshine is measured 87 km from the centre, at Vancouver International Airport.

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

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonVictoria
Official language-French, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation6 m23 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsVictoria International Airport (YYJ)25 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonVictoria
City population150,22791,867
People per km²5324,711
Museums within 10 km196
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 Victoria 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.