VacationSelector

Cancun 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.

The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
Cancun

Photo: Tellez Erik, Pexels License

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

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

Your match

Cancun
✓ Best match
52
match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Varanasi
40
match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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.

CancunVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Cancun leads by 94 points.94
Food & drink. Varanasi leads by 11 points.11
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 65 points.65
Nightlife. Cancun leads by 60 points.60
Nature & outdoors. Cancun leads by 48 points.48
Day trips. Cancun leads by 23 points.23
Good for families. Cancun leads by 73 points.73
Getting around. Varanasi leads by 3 points.3
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 15 points.15
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 46 points.46
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi leads by 41 points.41
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun leads by 25 points.25
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun 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
JulyCancunVaranasi
Daytime high30 °C35 °C
Night-time low26 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month89 mm249 mm
Sea temperature29 °CNo sea
Daylight13 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
Cancun
26
27
28
29
30
30
30
30
30
29
27
27
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Sea temperature, °C
Cancun
27
26
26
27
28
28
29
29
29
29
28
27
Varanasi
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Cancun
63
50
38
41
92
181
89
114
166
224
124
68
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Cancun
11
11
12
13
13
13
13
13
12
12
11
11
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11

Where the figures come from

Cancun 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.

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. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureCancunVaranasi
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaHindi, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation5 m76 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCancunVaranasi
City population888,7971,198,491
People per km²-14,598
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Cancun or Varanasi somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. 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.