VacationSelector
Punta del Este
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Punta del Este 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 Punta del Este for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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. Punta del Este 72, Varanasi 4: Punta del Este leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Punta del Este 45, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Punta del Este 22, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Punta del Este 60, Varanasi 10: Punta del Este leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta del Este 55, Varanasi 18: Punta del Este leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Punta del Este 45, Varanasi 42: Punta del Este leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Punta del Este 55, Varanasi 5: Punta del Este leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Punta del Este 35, Varanasi 28: Punta del Este leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Punta del Este 42, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Punta del Este 20, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 72 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta del Este 22, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta del Este 32, Varanasi 30: Punta del Este leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Punta del Este 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

Punta del Este
42match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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.

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Punta del EsteVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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. Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePunta del EsteVaranasi
Official language-Hindi, English
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation11 m76 m
Main airportCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePunta del EsteVaranasi
City population9,2771,198,491
People per km²45514,598
Museums within 10 km52
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Punta del Este 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. 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.