VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Fes 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 Fes for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • 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. Fes 5, Varanasi 4: Fes leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Fes 62, Varanasi 55: Fes leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Fes and Varanasi are level on 80.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Varanasi 10: Fes leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Varanasi 18: Fes leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Fes 62, Varanasi 42: Fes leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Varanasi 5: Fes leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Varanasi 28: Fes leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Varanasi 55: Fes leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Varanasi 30: Fes leads by 40 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Fes
Best match
49match

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

Varanasi
40match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
14 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
FesVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

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. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureFesVaranasi
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
Elevation408 m76 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureFesVaranasi
City population1,167,8421,198,491
People per km²3,65014,598
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fes 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.