VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Phuket 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 Phuket for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Varanasi for

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

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. Phuket 90, Varanasi 4: Phuket leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Varanasi 55: Phuket leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Varanasi 10: Phuket leads by 62 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Varanasi 18: Phuket leads by 62 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Varanasi 42: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Varanasi 5: Phuket leads by 60 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Varanasi 28: Varanasi leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Varanasi 30: Phuket leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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.

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket 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. Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePhuketVaranasi
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
Elevation19 m76 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketVaranasi
City population77,6101,198,491
People per km²6,46814,598
Museums within 10 km22
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 Phuket 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.