VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Varanasi?

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 Acapulco for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Varanasi’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. Acapulco 80, Varanasi 4: Acapulco leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco and Varanasi are level on 55.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Varanasi 10: Acapulco leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Varanasi 18: Acapulco leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Varanasi 42: Varanasi leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Varanasi 5: Acapulco leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Varanasi 28: Acapulco leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Varanasi 30: Acapulco leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Acapulco
Best match
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
249 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Varanasi has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoVaranasi
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaHindi, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation18 m76 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoVaranasi
City population658,6091,198,491
People per km²35014,598
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Varanasi 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.