VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Puerto 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 Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto 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. Puerto Vallarta 85, Varanasi 4: Puerto Vallarta leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Varanasi 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Varanasi 10: Puerto Vallarta leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Varanasi 18: Puerto Vallarta leads by 58 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Varanasi 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Varanasi 5: Puerto Vallarta leads by 60 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Varanasi 28: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Varanasi 30: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

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.

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 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
Puerto VallartaVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Puerto 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. Puerto 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

MeasurePuerto 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
Elevation101 m76 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 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

MeasurePuerto VallartaVaranasi
City population224,1661,198,491
People per km²4,31114,598
Museums within 10 km22
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 Puerto Vallarta or Varanasi somewhere new.

Browse every destination

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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.