VacationSelector
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Salvador 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 Salvador for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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. Salvador 84, Varanasi 4: Salvador leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Salvador 66, Varanasi 55: Salvador leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Salvador 74, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Salvador 70, Varanasi 10: Salvador leads by 60 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salvador 52, Varanasi 18: Salvador leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Salvador 56, Varanasi 42: Salvador leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Salvador 42, Varanasi 5: Salvador leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Salvador 42, Varanasi 28: Salvador leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Salvador 42, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Salvador 70, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salvador 63, Varanasi 58: Salvador leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salvador 32, Varanasi 30: Salvador leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salvador and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
SalvadorVaranasi

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. Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSalvadorVaranasi
Official languagePortugueseHindi, English
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCN60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193108 or 112
Elevation8 m76 m
Main airportDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureSalvadorVaranasi
City population2,417,6781,198,491
People per km²3,48914,598
Museums within 10 km492
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 Salvador 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). 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.