VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cairns 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 Cairns for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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. Cairns 62, Varanasi 4: Cairns leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Varanasi 10: Cairns leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Varanasi 18: Cairns leads by 77 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Varanasi 42: Cairns leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Varanasi 5: Cairns leads by 61 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Varanasi 28: Cairns leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Varanasi 30: Cairns leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Cairns
Best match
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cairns in July

24 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
30 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
11 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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Cairns's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Green Island Aws.

Cairns has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCairnsVaranasi
Official languageEnglishHindi, English
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+5:30
Emergency number000108 or 112
Elevation7 m76 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsVaranasi
City population146,7781,198,491
People per km²30114,598
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Cairns 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.