VacationSelector

Mexico City 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 Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zócalo, Mexico City
Mexico City

Photo: Oscar Dominguez, Pexels License

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

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

Your match

Mexico City
✓ Best match
63
match

Wins on nightlife and families with your weighting.

Varanasi
40
match

Wins on prices 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.

Mexico CityVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Mexico City leads by 1 points.1
Food & drink. Mexico City leads by 35 points.35
Culture & sights. Mexico City leads by 8 points.8
Nightlife. Mexico City leads by 70 points.70
Nature & outdoors. Mexico City leads by 32 points.32
Day trips. Mexico City leads by 33 points.33
Good for families. Mexico City leads by 53 points.53
Getting around. Mexico City leads by 22 points.22
Shopping & style. Mexico City leads by 21 points.21
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 17 points.17
Live music & performing arts. Mexico City leads by 14 points.14
Wellness & relaxation. Mexico City leads by 10 points.10
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mexico City 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
JulyMexico CityVaranasi
Daytime high25 °C35 °C
Night-time low13 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month176 mm249 mm
Sunshine6 hours a dayNo figure
Daylight13 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
Mexico City
22
25
26
28
27
26
25
25
24
23
23
22
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Rainfall, mm
Mexico City
7
3
19
27
53
127
176
186
144
79
10
9
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Mexico City
11
12
12
13
13
13
13
13
12
12
11
11
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Mexico City
8
8
9
8
8
6
6
6
5
6
7
7
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. Mexico City: 1991-2020 normals, Mexico Central, D. F. (7.9 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureMexico CityVaranasi
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaHindi, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation2,240 m76 m
Main airportMexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)7 km from centre109 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMexico CityVaranasi
City population9,209,9441,198,491
People per km²6,20214,598
Museums within 10 km1082
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km61

Where else could you go?

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