VacationSelector
The Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill, Halifax
HalifaxThe Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Halifax by Danieljmacdonald, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Halifax 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 Halifax for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Halifax 32, Varanasi 4: Halifax leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Halifax 50, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Halifax 42, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Halifax 46, Varanasi 10: Halifax leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Halifax 62, Varanasi 18: Halifax leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Halifax 63, Varanasi 42: Halifax leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Halifax 55, Varanasi 5: Halifax leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Halifax 48, Varanasi 28: Halifax leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Halifax 35, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Halifax 38, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Halifax 46, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Halifax 28, Varanasi 30: Varanasi leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Halifax and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Halifax
Best match
45match

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

Varanasi
40match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Halifax in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 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
HalifaxVaranasi

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. Halifax: 1991-2020 normals, Shearwater Airport (6 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHalifaxVaranasi
Official languageFrench, EnglishHindi, English
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation28 m76 m
Main airportHalifax / Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)26 km from centre40 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHalifaxVaranasi
City population440,0721,198,491
People per km²8014,598
Museums within 10 km152
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Halifax 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.