VacationSelector
The Golden Bridge held up by stone hands, Da Nang
Da NangThe Golden Bridge held up by stone hands
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Da Nang by Nghia Tran, Pexels License; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Da Nang 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 Da Nang for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Varanasi for

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

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. Da Nang 80, Varanasi 4: Da Nang leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Da Nang 67, Varanasi 55: Da Nang leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Da Nang 38, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Da Nang 44, Varanasi 10: Da Nang leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Da Nang 72, Varanasi 18: Da Nang leads by 54 points.
Day trips. Da Nang 80, Varanasi 42: Da Nang leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Da Nang 62, Varanasi 5: Da Nang leads by 57 points.
Getting around. Da Nang 38, Varanasi 28: Da Nang leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Da Nang 40, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Da Nang 90, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Da Nang 20, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Da Nang 64, Varanasi 30: Da Nang leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Da Nang and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Da Nang
Best match
58match

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.

Da Nang in July

35 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °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

0200400600800JFMAMJJASOND
Da NangVaranasi

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. Da Nang: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (4.9 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDa NangVaranasi
Official languageVietnameseHindi, English
CurrencyDong (VND)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114108 or 112
Elevation19 m76 m
Main airportDa Nang International Airport (DAD)3 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureDa NangVaranasi
City population2,819,9001,198,491
People per km²23814,598
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Da Nang 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.