VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Muscat 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 Muscat for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Varanasi for

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

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. Muscat 72, Varanasi 4: Muscat leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Varanasi 10: Muscat leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Varanasi 18: Muscat leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Varanasi 42: Muscat leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Varanasi 5: Muscat leads by 47 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Varanasi 28: Varanasi leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat 55, Varanasi 30: Muscat leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Muscat
Best match
48match

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.

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °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
MuscatVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

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. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMuscatVaranasi
Official languageArabicHindi, English
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+5:30
Emergency number968108 or 112
Elevation69 m76 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatVaranasi
City population1,421,4091,198,491
People per km²40614,598
Museums within 10 km102
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 Muscat 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.