VacationSelector
Haedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea, Busan
BusanHaedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Busan by Andrea De Santis, Pexels License; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Busan 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 Busan for

  • families
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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. Busan 68, Varanasi 4: Busan leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Busan 72, Varanasi 55: Busan leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Busan 52, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Busan 60, Varanasi 10: Busan leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Busan 74, Varanasi 18: Busan leads by 56 points.
Day trips. Busan 74, Varanasi 42: Busan leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Busan 70, Varanasi 5: Busan leads by 65 points.
Getting around. Busan 68, Varanasi 28: Busan leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Busan 60, Varanasi 55: Busan leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Busan 56, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Busan 42, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Busan 78, Varanasi 30: Busan leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Busan and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Busan
Best match
65match

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.

Busan in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
352 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BusanVaranasi

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. Busan: 1991-2020 normals, Pusan (9.7 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBusanVaranasi
Official languageKorean, Korean Sign LanguageHindi, English
CurrencyWon (KRW)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCF220 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 119, fire 119108 or 112
Elevation30 m76 m
Main airportGimhae International Airport (PUS)12 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBusanVaranasi
City population3,453,1981,198,491
People per km²4,48614,598
Museums within 10 km72
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
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 Busan 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.