VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Montego Bay 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 Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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. Montego Bay 84, Varanasi 4: Montego Bay leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Varanasi 10: Montego Bay leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Varanasi 18: Montego Bay leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Varanasi 42: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Varanasi 5: Montego Bay leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Varanasi 28: Varanasi leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Varanasi 30: Montego Bay leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
Best match
44match

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

Varanasi
40match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Montego Bay in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayVaranasi

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. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayVaranasi
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisHindi, English
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110108 or 112
Elevation19 m76 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayVaranasi
City population123,9941,198,491
People per km²-14,598
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montego Bay 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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.

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.