VacationSelector
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Negril 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 Negril for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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. Negril 93, Varanasi 4: Negril leads by 89 points.
Food & drink. Negril 36, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Negril 8, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 72 points.
Nightlife. Negril 40, Varanasi 10: Negril leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Negril 60, Varanasi 18: Negril leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Negril 35, Varanasi 42: Varanasi leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Negril 45, Varanasi 5: Negril leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Negril 30, Varanasi 28: Negril leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Negril 15, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Negril 44, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Negril 33, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Negril 52, Varanasi 30: Negril leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Negril and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Negril
41match

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

Varanasi
40match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Negril in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
174 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
NegrilVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Negril's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Montego Bay / Sangster.

Negril has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureNegrilVaranasi
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
Elevation10 m76 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 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

MeasureNegrilVaranasi
City population4,5001,198,491
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 Negril 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.