VacationSelector
The Teatro Amazonas, Manaus
ManausThe Teatro Amazonas
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Manaus by Jardelsliumba, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Manaus 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 Manaus for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • prices

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. Manaus 38, Varanasi 4: Manaus leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Manaus 56, Varanasi 55: Manaus leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Manaus 46, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Manaus 42, Varanasi 10: Manaus leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manaus 86, Varanasi 18: Manaus leads by 68 points.
Day trips. Manaus 12, Varanasi 42: Varanasi leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Manaus 35, Varanasi 5: Manaus leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Manaus 27, Varanasi 28: Varanasi leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Manaus 36, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Manaus 63, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manaus 54, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manaus 20, Varanasi 30: Varanasi leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manaus and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Manaus
Best match
43match

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

Varanasi
40match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Manaus in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
12 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
ManausVaranasi

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. Manaus: 1991-2020 normals, Manaus (1.7 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureManausVaranasi
Official languagePortugueseHindi, English
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCN60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193108 or 112
Elevation92 m76 m
Main airportEduardo Gomes International Airport (MAO)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureManausVaranasi
City population2,303,7321,198,491
People per km²20214,598
Museums within 10 km132
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 Manaus 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.