VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Samarkand 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 Samarkand for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • prices

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. Samarkand and Varanasi are level on 4.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, Varanasi 80: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, Varanasi 10: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, Varanasi 18: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, Varanasi 42: Samarkand leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, Varanasi 5: Samarkand leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, Varanasi 28: Samarkand leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, Varanasi 30: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Samarkand and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Samarkand
Best match
45match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Varanasi
40match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Samarkand in July

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

Varanasi in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
249 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandVaranasi

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. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandVaranasi
Official languageUzbekHindi, English
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+5UTC+5:30
Emergency number112108 or 112
Elevation702 m76 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandVaranasi
City population546,3031,198,491
People per km²5,05814,598
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Samarkand 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.