VacationSelector

Portland or Varanasi?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
Portland

Photo: Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
Varanasi

Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

Your match

Portland
✓ Best match
52
match

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

Varanasi
40
match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

PortlandVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Portland leads by 16 points.16
Food & drink. Portland leads by 13 points.13
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 42 points.42
Nightlife. Portland leads by 42 points.42
Nature & outdoors. Portland leads by 66 points.66
Day trips. Portland leads by 16 points.16
Good for families. Portland leads by 50 points.50
Getting around. Portland leads by 34 points.34
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 3 points.3
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 54 points.54
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi leads by 3 points.3
Wellness & relaxation. Portland leads by 12 points.12
0255075100

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

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyPortlandVaranasi
Daytime high27 °C35 °C
Night-time low15 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month13 mm249 mm
Daylight15 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Portland
8
11
13
16
20
23
27
28
25
18
12
8
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Rainfall, mm
Portland
128
94
101
75
65
41
13
14
39
87
138
145
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Portland
9
10
12
14
15
16
15
14
13
11
10
9
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11

Where the figures come from

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. Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasurePortlandVaranasi
Official language-Hindi, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation152 m76 m
Main airportPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePortlandVaranasi
City population652,5031,198,491
People per km²1,73614,598
Museums within 10 km172
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Portland 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. 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. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.