VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Luang Prabang 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 Luang Prabang for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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. Luang Prabang 14, Varanasi 4: Luang Prabang leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Varanasi 10: Varanasi leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Varanasi 18: Luang Prabang leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Varanasi 42: Varanasi leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Varanasi 5: Luang Prabang leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Varanasi 28: Luang Prabang leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Varanasi 30: Luang Prabang leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Luang Prabang
Best match
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Luang PrabangVaranasi

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. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangVaranasi
Official languageLaoHindi, English
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190108 or 112
Elevation305 m76 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangVaranasi
City population53,7921,198,491
People per km²-14,598
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Luang Prabang 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. 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.