VacationSelector
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Portofino 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 Portofino for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Portofino 60, Varanasi 4: Portofino leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Portofino 36, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Portofino 22, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Portofino 14, Varanasi 10: Portofino leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Portofino 77, Varanasi 18: Portofino leads by 59 points.
Day trips. Portofino 76, Varanasi 42: Portofino leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Portofino 33, Varanasi 5: Portofino leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Portofino 50, Varanasi 28: Portofino leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Portofino 29, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Portofino 9, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 83 points.
Live music & performing arts. Portofino 7, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 51 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Portofino 42, Varanasi 30: Portofino leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Portofino
38match

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

Varanasi
40match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PortofinoVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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. Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePortofinoVaranasi
Official languageItalianHindi, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112108 or 112
Elevation20 m76 m
Main airportGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePortofinoVaranasi
City population3551,198,491
People per km²14214,598
Museums within 10 km142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Portofino 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.