VacationSelector

Cardiff 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.

Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
Cardiff

Photo: Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped

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

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

Your match

Cardiff
✓ Best match
52
match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors 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.

CardiffVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Cardiff leads by 26 points.26
Food & drink. Varanasi leads by 10 points.10
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 22 points.22
Nightlife. Cardiff leads by 40 points.40
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff leads by 52 points.52
Day trips. Cardiff leads by 30 points.30
Good for families. Cardiff leads by 53 points.53
Getting around. Cardiff leads by 38 points.38
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 5 points.5
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 46 points.46
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi leads by 1 points.1
Wellness & relaxation. Varanasi leads by 3 points.3
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff 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
JulyCardiffVaranasi
Daytime high20 °C35 °C
Night-time low13 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month61 mm249 mm
Sunshine7 hours a dayNo figure
Sea temperature17 °CNo sea
Daylight16 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
Cardiff
8
8
10
13
16
18
20
20
18
14
11
9
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Sea temperature, °C
Cardiff
8
7
8
9
12
15
17
18
17
15
12
9
Varanasi
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Cardiff
77
55
49
54
56
56
61
66
54
87
83
79
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Cardiff
8
10
12
14
16
17
16
15
13
11
9
8
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Cardiff
2
3
4
6
7
7
7
6
5
4
2
2
Varanasi
No sunshine record

Where the figures come from

Cardiff's rainfall is measured 83 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Cardiff's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

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. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureCardiffVaranasi
Official languageEnglishHindi, English
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112 or 999108 or 112
Elevation41 m76 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffVaranasi
City population383,5361,198,491
People per km²2,73414,598
Museums within 10 km92
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cardiff 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. 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. 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.