VacationSelector

Limassol or Varanasi?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
Limassol

Photo: Julian Lupyan, CC0

Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
Varanasi

Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

Your match

Limassol
✓ Best match
52
match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Varanasi
40
match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

LimassolVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Limassol leads by 73 points.73
Food & drink. Limassol leads by 3 points.3
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 42 points.42
Nightlife. Limassol leads by 40 points.40
Nature & outdoors. Limassol leads by 47 points.47
Day trips. Limassol leads by 34 points.34
Good for families. Limassol leads by 58 points.58
Getting around. Limassol leads by 10 points.10
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 13 points.13
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 48 points.48
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi leads by 26 points.26
Wellness & relaxation. Limassol leads by 12 points.12
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Limassol and Varanasi.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyLimassolVaranasi
Daytime high31 °C35 °C
Night-time low24 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month1 mm249 mm
Sunshine13 hours a dayNo figure
Sea temperature26 °CNo sea
Daylight14 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Limassol
17
17
19
22
25
29
31
31
30
27
23
19
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Sea temperature, °C
Limassol
18
17
17
18
20
23
26
27
26
25
22
20
Varanasi
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Limassol
81
47
29
17
10
2
1
0
5
14
42
98
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Limassol
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
14
12
11
10
10
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Limassol
6
6
8
9
11
12
13
12
10
9
7
6
Varanasi
No sunshine record

Where the figures come from

Limassol's rainfall is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

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. Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureLimassolVaranasi
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekHindi, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112108 or 112
Elevation10 m76 m
Main airportLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLimassolVaranasi
City population107,9701,198,491
People per km²2,40514,598
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Limassol or Varanasi somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.