VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta 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 Nuevo Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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. Nuevo Vallarta 84, Varanasi 4: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Varanasi 10: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Varanasi 18: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 57 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Varanasi 42: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Varanasi 5: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 68 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Varanasi 28: Varanasi leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Varanasi 30: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 25 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Nuevo Vallarta
Best match
43match

Wins on beaches and families 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.

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Nuevo Vallarta 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.

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. Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaVaranasi
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
Elevation3 m76 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaVaranasi
City population1,3011,198,491
People per km²-14,598
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Nuevo Vallarta 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). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. 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.