Photos: Ho Chi Minh City by trungydang, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.
Ho Chi Minh City 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 Ho Chi Minh City for
- nightlife
- families
- food and drink
What lies behind each score is written up on Ho Chi Minh City’s own page.
Choose Varanasi for
- culture and sights
- 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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ho Chi Minh City and Varanasi.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and families with your weighting.
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.
Ho Chi Minh City in July
Varanasi in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
Where the figures come from
Ho Chi Minh City 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. Ho Chi Minh City: 1991-2020 normals, Ho Chi Minh (6 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.
Before you go
| Measure | Ho Chi Minh City | Varanasi |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Vietnamese | Hindi, English |
| Currency | Dong (VND) | Indian Rupee (INR) |
| Sockets | ACFG220 V, 50 Hz | CM230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+7 | UTC+5:30 |
| Emergency number | Police 113, ambulance 115, fire 114 | 108 or 112 |
| Elevation | 13 m | 76 m |
| Main airport | Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)7 km from centre90 non-stop destinations | Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations |
By the numbers
| Measure | Ho Chi Minh City | Varanasi |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 14,002,598 | 1,198,491 |
| People per km² | 2,068 | 14,598 |
| Museums within 10 km | 9 | 2 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | - |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ho Chi Minh City or Varanasi somewhere new.