VacationSelector

San Sebastian 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.

La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San Sebastian

Photo: Guérin Nicolas, 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

San Sebastian
✓ Best match
60
match

Wins on beaches and families 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.

San SebastianVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. San Sebastian leads by 64 points.64
Food & drink. San Sebastian leads by 33 points.33
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 28 points.28
Nightlife. San Sebastian leads by 34 points.34
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian leads by 54 points.54
Day trips. San Sebastian leads by 38 points.38
Good for families. San Sebastian leads by 61 points.61
Getting around. San Sebastian leads by 52 points.52
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 15 points.15
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 60 points.60
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi leads by 13 points.13
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian leads by 20 points.20
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian 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
JulySan SebastianVaranasi
Daytime high22 °C35 °C
Night-time low16 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month92 mm249 mm
Sunshine7 hours a dayNo figure
Sea temperature21 °CNo sea
Daylight15 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
San Sebastian
11
12
14
15
18
20
22
23
21
19
14
12
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Sea temperature, °C
San Sebastian
13
12
13
14
16
19
21
22
21
18
16
14
Varanasi
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
San Sebastian
151
125
119
126
122
96
92
109
117
155
203
153
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
San Sebastian
9
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
San Sebastian
3
4
5
5
7
6
7
6
6
5
3
3
Varanasi
No sunshine record

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianVaranasi
Official languageSpanishHindi, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112108 or 112
Elevation6 m76 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianVaranasi
City population189,8661,198,491
People per km²3,11814,598
Museums within 10 km142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

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