VacationSelector

Bologna or Varanasi?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
Bologna

Photo: Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
Varanasi

Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

Your match

Bologna
✓ Best match
60
match

Wins on day trips and nightlife with your weighting.

Varanasi
40
match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

BolognaVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Bologna leads by 26 points.26
Food & drink. Bologna leads by 27 points.27
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 3 points.3
Nightlife. Bologna leads by 48 points.48
Nature & outdoors. Bologna leads by 34 points.34
Day trips. Bologna leads by 53 points.53
Good for families. Bologna leads by 45 points.45
Getting around. Bologna leads by 48 points.48
Shopping & style. Bologna and Varanasi are level on 55.
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 44 points.44
Live music & performing arts. Bologna leads by 2 points.2
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna leads by 10 points.10
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Varanasi.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyBolognaVaranasi
Daytime high32 °C35 °C
Night-time low20 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month34 mm249 mm
Sunshine11 hours a dayNo figure
Daylight15 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Bologna
7
10
15
19
24
29
32
32
26
19
13
8
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Rainfall, mm
Bologna
36
36
49
54
50
37
34
40
75
75
70
58
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Bologna
9
10
12
13
15
16
15
14
13
11
10
9
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Bologna
3
4
6
7
8
10
11
10
7
5
3
3
Varanasi
No sunshine record

Where the figures come from

Bologna's rainfall is measured 82 km from the centre, at Cervia.

Bologna's sunshine is measured 82 km from the centre, at Cervia.

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. Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureBolognaVaranasi
Official languageItalianHindi, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112108 or 112
Elevation54 m76 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaVaranasi
City population387,9711,198,491
People per km²2,75414,598
Museums within 10 km662
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.