VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Charleston or Wellington?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Wellington for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Charleston leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Wellington 62: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Wellington 44: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Wellington 40: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Wellington 42: Charleston leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Wellington 30: Charleston leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Wellington.

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.

Wellington
49match

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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonWellington
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation6 m0 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonWellington
City population150,227216,200
People per km²532487
Museums within 10 km1912
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 Wellington 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.