VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Colombo 55, Varanasi 4: Colombo leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Varanasi 55: Colombo leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Varanasi 10: Colombo leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Varanasi 18: Colombo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Varanasi 42: Colombo leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Varanasi 5: Colombo leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Varanasi 28: Colombo leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Varanasi 30: Colombo leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Colombo
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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
ColomboVaranasi

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureColomboVaranasi
Official languageTamil, SinhalaHindi, English
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110108 or 112
Elevation1 m76 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureColomboVaranasi
City population647,5571,198,491
People per km²17,36114,598
Museums within 10 km102
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 Colombo 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.