VacationSelector

Riga 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.

The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
Riga

Photo: Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped

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

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

Your match

Riga
✓ Best match
55
match

Wins on families and nightlife 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.

RigaVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Riga leads by 36 points.36
Food & drink. Varanasi leads by 3 points.3
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 14 points.14
Nightlife. Riga leads by 42 points.42
Nature & outdoors. Riga leads by 37 points.37
Day trips. Riga leads by 18 points.18
Good for families. Riga leads by 45 points.45
Getting around. Riga leads by 40 points.40
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 10 points.10
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 30 points.30
Live music & performing arts. Riga leads by 7 points.7
Wellness & relaxation. Riga leads by 20 points.20
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Riga 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
JulyRigaVaranasi
Daytime high24 °C35 °C
Night-time low15 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month87 mm249 mm
Sea temperature18 °CNo sea
Daylight17 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
Riga
0
0
4
12
17
21
24
22
17
11
5
1
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Sea temperature, °C
Riga
2
1
1
3
9
14
18
19
16
11
8
5
Varanasi
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Riga
43
40
35
33
52
69
87
78
65
82
58
50
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Riga
8
9
12
14
17
18
17
15
13
10
8
7
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. Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureRigaVaranasi
Official languageLatvianHindi, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112108 or 112
Elevation6 m76 m
Main airportRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureRigaVaranasi
City population588,9111,198,491
People per km²-14,598
Museums within 10 km122
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Riga 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. 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. 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. 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.