VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Hurghada 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 Hurghada for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Hurghada 84, Varanasi 4: Hurghada leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 66 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Varanasi 10: Hurghada leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Varanasi 18: Hurghada leads by 54 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Varanasi 42: Varanasi leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Varanasi 5: Hurghada leads by 57 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Varanasi 28: Varanasi leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Varanasi 30: Hurghada leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Hurghada
Best match
43match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

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.

Hurghada in July

37 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 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
HurghadaVaranasi

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. Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaVaranasi
Official languageArabicHindi, English
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180108 or 112
Elevation11 m76 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaVaranasi
City population214,2471,198,491
People per km²-14,598
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Hurghada 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). 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.