VacationSelector

Malaga 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.

The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
Malaga

Photo: Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

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

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

Your match

Malaga
✓ Best match
64
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.

MalagaVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Malaga leads by 73 points.73
Food & drink. Malaga leads by 13 points.13
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 15 points.15
Nightlife. Malaga leads by 52 points.52
Nature & outdoors. Malaga leads by 55 points.55
Day trips. Malaga leads by 45 points.45
Good for families. Malaga leads by 65 points.65
Getting around. Malaga leads by 42 points.42
Shopping & style. Malaga and Varanasi are level on 55.
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 37 points.37
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi leads by 13 points.13
Wellness & relaxation. Malaga leads by 12 points.12
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Malaga 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
JulyMalagaVaranasi
Daytime high31 °C35 °C
Night-time low21 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month0 mm249 mm
Sunshine12 hours a dayNo figure
Sea temperature22 °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
Malaga
17
18
20
22
25
29
31
32
28
24
20
18
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Sea temperature, °C
Malaga
15
15
15
16
18
20
22
23
22
20
17
16
Varanasi
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Malaga
62
55
66
41
23
4
0
3
25
60
78
88
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Malaga
10
11
12
13
14
15
14
14
13
11
10
10
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Malaga
6
6
7
8
10
11
12
11
8
7
6
5
Varanasi
No sunshine record

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. Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureMalagaVaranasi
Official languageSpanishHindi, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112108 or 112
Elevation18 m76 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMalagaVaranasi
City population599,0631,198,491
People per km²1,51714,598
Museums within 10 km322
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

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