VacationSelector
The church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón, La Romana
La RomanaThe church of San Estanislao at Altos de Chavón
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: La Romana by Edgar El, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

La Romana 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 La Romana for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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.

Beaches & swimming. La Romana 84, Varanasi 4: La Romana leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. La Romana 38, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. La Romana 24, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. La Romana 30, Varanasi 10: La Romana leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Romana 62, Varanasi 18: La Romana leads by 44 points.
Day trips. La Romana 52, Varanasi 42: La Romana leads by 10 points.
Good for families. La Romana 56, Varanasi 5: La Romana leads by 51 points.
Getting around. La Romana 24, Varanasi 28: Varanasi leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. La Romana 28, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 27 points.
Affordability. La Romana 50, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Romana 17, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Romana 44, Varanasi 30: La Romana leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Romana and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

La Romana
42match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

La Romana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 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
La RomanaVaranasi

Where the figures come from

La Romana's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Punta Cana.

La Romana 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. La Romana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (65.4 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLa RomanaVaranasi
Official languageSpanishHindi, English
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation10 m76 m
Main airportCasa De Campo International Airport (LRM)7 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLa RomanaVaranasi
City population139,2381,198,491
People per km²51214,598
Museums within 10 km02
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 La Romana 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.