VacationSelector
The Japanese Covered Bridge, Hoi An
Hoi AnThe Japanese Covered Bridge
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Hoi An by François Guerraz, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Hoi An 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 Hoi An for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Hoi An 72, Varanasi 4: Hoi An leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Hoi An 68, Varanasi 55: Hoi An leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Hoi An 66, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Hoi An 28, Varanasi 10: Hoi An leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hoi An 63, Varanasi 18: Hoi An leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Hoi An 50, Varanasi 42: Hoi An leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Hoi An 58, Varanasi 5: Hoi An leads by 53 points.
Getting around. Hoi An 48, Varanasi 28: Hoi An leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Hoi An 57, Varanasi 55: Hoi An leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Hoi An 88, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hoi An 24, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hoi An 65, Varanasi 30: Hoi An leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hoi An and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Hoi An
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Hoi An in July

35 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600800JFMAMJJASOND
Hoi AnVaranasi

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. Hoi An: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (23.5 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHoi AnVaranasi
Official languageVietnameseHindi, English
CurrencyDong (VND)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114108 or 112
Elevation13 m76 m
Main airportDa Nang International Airport (DAD)23 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureHoi AnVaranasi
City population121,7161,198,491
People per km²-14,598
Museums within 10 km52
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hoi An 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). 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.