VacationSelector

Geneva or Varanasi?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The Jet d'Eau and a lake boat, Geneva
Geneva

Photo: Diviosen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped

Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
Varanasi

Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

Your match

Geneva
✓ Best match
57
match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Varanasi
40
match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

GenevaVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Geneva leads by 41 points.41
Food & drink. Geneva and Varanasi are level on 55.
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 22 points.22
Nightlife. Geneva leads by 28 points.28
Nature & outdoors. Geneva leads by 64 points.64
Day trips. Geneva leads by 38 points.38
Good for families. Geneva leads by 52 points.52
Getting around. Geneva leads by 58 points.58
Shopping & style. Geneva leads by 13 points.13
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 87 points.87
Live music & performing arts. Geneva leads by 2 points.2
Wellness & relaxation. Geneva leads by 25 points.25
0255075100

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

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyGenevaVaranasi
Daytime high27 °C35 °C
Night-time low15 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month77 mm249 mm
Sunshine9 hours a dayNo figure
Daylight15 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Geneva
5
7
12
16
20
24
27
26
21
16
9
6
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Rainfall, mm
Geneva
71
55
61
66
77
81
77
80
87
94
87
88
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Geneva
9
10
12
14
15
16
15
14
13
11
10
9
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Geneva
2
3
6
6
7
8
9
8
6
4
2
2
Varanasi
No sunshine record

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. Geneva: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (5.7 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureGenevaVaranasi
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshHindi, English
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112108 or 112
Elevation403 m76 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)5 km from centre151 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGenevaVaranasi
City population209,0611,198,491
People per km²13,14814,598
Museums within 10 km352
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Geneva or Varanasi somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.