VacationSelector
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Salt Lake City 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 Salt Lake City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’s own page.

Choose Varanasi for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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. Salt Lake City 12, Varanasi 4: Salt Lake City leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Salt Lake City 40, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Salt Lake City 42, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Salt Lake City 30, Varanasi 10: Salt Lake City leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salt Lake City 90, Varanasi 18: Salt Lake City leads by 72 points.
Day trips. Salt Lake City 34, Varanasi 42: Varanasi leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Salt Lake City 72, Varanasi 5: Salt Lake City leads by 67 points.
Getting around. Salt Lake City 42, Varanasi 28: Salt Lake City leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Salt Lake City 36, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Salt Lake City 40, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salt Lake City 55, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salt Lake City 38, Varanasi 30: Salt Lake City leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salt Lake City and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Salt Lake City
Best match
44match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families 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.

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
249 mmrain in the month
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Salt Lake CityVaranasi

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. Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSalt Lake CityVaranasi
Official language-Hindi, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation1,288 m76 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureSalt Lake CityVaranasi
City population199,7231,198,491
People per km²69014,598
Museums within 10 km122
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 Salt Lake City 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. 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.

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.