VacationSelector
The SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Myrtle Beach or Shanghai?

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 Myrtle Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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. Myrtle Beach 84, Shanghai 10: Myrtle Beach leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Myrtle Beach 38, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. Myrtle Beach 20, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Myrtle Beach 42, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Myrtle Beach 46, Shanghai 25: Myrtle Beach leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Myrtle Beach 50, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Myrtle Beach and Shanghai are level on 80.
Getting around. Myrtle Beach 18, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 67 points.
Shopping & style. Myrtle Beach 38, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 44 points.
Affordability. Myrtle Beach 52, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Myrtle Beach 30, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Myrtle Beach 28, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Myrtle Beach and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Myrtle Beach
44match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Myrtle BeachShanghai

Where the figures come from

Myrtle Beach 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. Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMyrtle BeachShanghai
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
Elevation8 m4 m
Main airportMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureMyrtle BeachShanghai
City population35,68224,870,895
People per km²5913,922
Museums within 10 km245
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Myrtle Beach or Shanghai 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.