VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Charleston or Xi'an?

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 Xi'an for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Xi'an’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, Xi'an 4: Charleston leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Xi'an 70: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Xi'an 42: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Xi'an 62: Xi'an leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Xi'an 48: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Xi'an 50: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Xi'an 40: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston and Xi'an are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Xi'an
55match

Wins on prices 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

Xi'an in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonXi'an

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonXi'an
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation6 m405 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonXi'an
City population150,22712,952,907
People per km²5321,283
Museums within 10 km199
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

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