VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Pattaya 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 Pattaya for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Pattaya 66, Varanasi 4: Pattaya leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Varanasi 55: Pattaya leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Varanasi 10: Pattaya leads by 66 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Varanasi 18: Pattaya leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Varanasi 42: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Varanasi 5: Pattaya leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Varanasi 28: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Varanasi 30: Pattaya leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

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. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePattayaVaranasi
Official languageThaiHindi, English
CurrencyBaht (THB)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199108 or 112
Elevation35 m76 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaVaranasi
City population119,5321,198,491
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 Pattaya 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). 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.

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.