VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Essaouira 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 Essaouira for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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. Essaouira 47, Varanasi 4: Essaouira leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Varanasi 10: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Varanasi 18: Essaouira leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Varanasi 42: Varanasi leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Varanasi 5: Essaouira leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Varanasi 28: Essaouira leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Varanasi 30: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Essaouira
Best match
45match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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.

Essaouira in July

22 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Essaouira has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraVaranasi
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightHindi, English
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCE50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15108 or 112
Elevation11 m76 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraVaranasi
City population82,9621,198,491
People per km²16,59214,598
Museums within 10 km22
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 Essaouira 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.