VacationSelector
The cathedral on Plaza de Bolivar, Bogota
BogotaThe cathedral on Plaza de Bolivar
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Bogota by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Bogota 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 Bogota for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Bogota’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. Bogota 5, Varanasi 4: Bogota leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Bogota 66, Varanasi 55: Bogota leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Bogota 68, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Bogota 72, Varanasi 10: Bogota leads by 62 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bogota 64, Varanasi 18: Bogota leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Bogota 52, Varanasi 42: Bogota leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Bogota 45, Varanasi 5: Bogota leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Bogota 36, Varanasi 28: Bogota leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Bogota 52, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bogota 77, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bogota 64, Varanasi 58: Bogota leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bogota 28, Varanasi 30: Varanasi leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bogota and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Bogota
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors 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.

Bogota in July

17 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BogotaVaranasi

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. Bogota: 1991-2020 normals, Bogota / Eldorado (14.1 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBogotaVaranasi
Official languageSpanishHindi, English
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+5:30
Emergency number123108 or 112
Elevation2,582 m76 m
Main airportEl Dorado International Airport (BOG)13 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBogotaVaranasi
City population8,034,6491,198,491
People per km²5,09214,598
Museums within 10 km302
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bogota 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.