VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai 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 Chiang Mai for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Varanasi for

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

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. Chiang Mai 6, Varanasi 4: Chiang Mai leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Varanasi 55: Chiang Mai leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Varanasi 10: Chiang Mai leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Varanasi 18: Chiang Mai leads by 55 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Varanasi 42: Chiang Mai leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Varanasi 5: Chiang Mai leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Varanasi 28: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Varanasi 55: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Varanasi 30: Chiang Mai leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

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

Varanasi
40match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Chiang Mai in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
249 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiVaranasi

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. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiVaranasi
Official languageThaiHindi, English
CurrencyBaht (THB)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199108 or 112
Elevation310 m76 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiVaranasi
City population1,198,0001,198,491
People per km²2,95814,598
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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.