VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Charleston or York?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose York for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Charleston leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, York 42: Charleston leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, York 70: York leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, York 36: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, York 62: York leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, York 80: York leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Charleston and York are level on 60.
Getting around. Charleston 46, York 72: York leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, York 46: Charleston leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, York 38: York leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, York 38: Charleston leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, York 34: Charleston leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and York.

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.

York
49match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonYork
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation6 m25 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonYork
City population150,227208,400
People per km²532766
Museums within 10 km1924
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 York 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.