VacationSelector
Durban
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Durban 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 Durban for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Varanasi for

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

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. Durban 80, Varanasi 4: Durban leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Varanasi 55: Durban leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Varanasi 10: Durban leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Varanasi 18: Durban leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Varanasi 42: Varanasi leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Varanasi 5: Durban leads by 55 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Varanasi 28: Varanasi leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban and Varanasi are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Durban in July

23 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
10 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanVaranasi

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. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDurbanVaranasi
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageHindi, English
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+5:30
Emergency number112108 or 112
Elevation22 m76 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanVaranasi
City population595,0611,198,491
People per km²2,63414,598
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Durban 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). 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.

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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.