VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Baku 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 Baku for

  • families
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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. Baku 40, Varanasi 4: Baku leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, Varanasi 55: Baku leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Varanasi 10: Baku leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Varanasi 18: Baku leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Varanasi 42: Baku leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Varanasi 5: Baku leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Varanasi 28: Baku leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku and Varanasi are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Baku
Best match
48match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on prices 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.

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BakuVaranasi

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. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBakuVaranasi
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageHindi, English
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+5:30
Emergency number102 or 112108 or 112
Elevation-28 m76 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureBakuVaranasi
City population2,300,5001,198,491
People per km²1,07514,598
Museums within 10 km502
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.