Lowcountry · city

What a trip to Charleston costs

A week in Charleston for eight people works out around $10,300 before flights — $290 a night for a place sleeping four, scaled for the group, plus $87 per adult per day for food. From Atlanta, Chicago and New York it is cheaper for a family of four to drive than to fly.

A historic South Carolina port city known for its preserved antebellum architecture, cobblestone streets and Lowcountry cooking. Fort Sumter, in the harbour, is where the Civil War began.

with children okadults-only trip goodstroller / limited mobility ok

What a week costs

Lodging and food only. Seven nights, whole-property rental, all fees in.

Group	Lodging	Food	Total	Per person
4 people	$2,030	$2,440	$4,470	$1,120
8 people	$5,460	$4,870	$10,300	$1,290
12 people	$7,470	$7,310	$14,800	$1,230

Note the per-person column does not simply fall. A place sleeping four is the efficient unit; going to eight means changing property class, which costs more than double. Past eight it improves again — each additional person adds roughly half what they did over the first jump. The expensive step is condo to house, not the people you put in it.

How Charleston compares

CharlestonLowcountry median of 4Cities median of 7All destinations median of 40

Nightly lodging for a property sleeping four, month by month. Medians are taken across the seeded destinations in each group, so they are the middle of that group rather than any one place.

Averaged across the year, Charleston runs $293 a night for a property that sleeps four. That sits within a few percent of the median for all 40 destinations ($295) — close to the middle of the library. Against its own kind it is 50% above the typical city ($195), the most expensive of 7 cities.

Cities are generally cheapest in June, but the low here falls in January.
It is above the all-library median for 9 months of the year and below it for the other 3 (Jun, Jul, Aug) — so whether it counts as an expensive destination depends entirely on when you go.
The same week costs $582 more in March than in January on lodging alone, before anyone has bought a flight.
It is at its most expensive in March and cheapest in January — the opposite of the library as a whole, which peaks in July. Advice about avoiding summer prices is the wrong way round here.
Within Lowcountry (4 destinations here), it is 14% above the regional median of $257 a night.
Driving beats four seats from Atlanta, Chicago and New York. The longest of those is Chicago — 859 road miles and 14.1h each way, saving $630 against four seats.
The cheapest seven nights of the year fall in January, at $1,814 for the whole property — $2,396 for the same week in March.
The sharpest single step is between May and June: moving the same week across that line changes the lodging bill by $366.
The closest thing to it on price is Lake George, NY, a lake town: $10,301 for a week for eight against $10,335 here, $35 apart — the same money for a completely different trip.

When to go

Charleston is at its most expensive in March and cheapest in January — a 32% swing on the same property.

Month	Per night, sleeps 4
January	$259
February	$259
March	$342
April	$342
May	$342
June	$290
July	$290
August	$290
September	$290
October	$290
November	$259
December	$259

Getting there

The two halves are not priced the same way, which is the whole point: a seat costs per person, a car costs the same whatever the headcount.

	Flying		Driving
From	Round tripper person	Each wayhours	Round tripper car	Each wayhours	Cheaperfor four
Atlanta	$363	3.4h	$474	5.8h	driving
Chicago	$484*	4.4h	$1,306	14.1h2 days	driving
Dallas	$208*	4.9h	$1,673	17.9h2 days	flying
Denver	$536*	5.9h	$2,430	25.8h3 days	flying
Los Angeles	$374*	9.2h	$3,683	39.1h4 days	flying
New York	$320*	4.2h	$1,104	12.1h2 days	driving
Seattle	$472*	9.7h	$4,032	42.8h5 days	flying
Phoenix	$507	8.5h	$3,085	32.7h4 days	flying

Drives over ten hours are shown in days as well: nobody drives that in one go. The nights on the road are not counted here, so a long drive is cheaper on this page than it would be in life. * published DOT average for that airport pair. Others are modeled from distance. Driving uses the IRS standard mileage rate, which includes running costs, not just fuel.

See all 7 cities in the library →

Compare Charleston against other destinations →

Where these numbers come from

Lodging is indexed from the US federal per-diem schedule (GSA) for this county, calibrated against real rental listings. Food uses this location's own federal meal tier. Fares come from the DOT Consumer Airfare Report where that airport pair is published, and from a model fitted to 2,089 real DOT fares otherwise. Everything here is an estimate for planning, not a quote — check real prices before booking.