VacationSelector
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Barbara’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. Santa Barbara 60, Varanasi 4: Santa Barbara leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Santa Barbara 62, Varanasi 55: Santa Barbara leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Barbara 48, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Santa Barbara 34, Varanasi 10: Santa Barbara leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Barbara 80, Varanasi 18: Santa Barbara leads by 62 points.
Day trips. Santa Barbara 55, Varanasi 42: Santa Barbara leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Santa Barbara 64, Varanasi 5: Santa Barbara leads by 59 points.
Getting around. Santa Barbara 46, Varanasi 28: Santa Barbara leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Barbara 45, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Santa Barbara 15, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 77 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Barbara 50, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Barbara 50, Varanasi 30: Santa Barbara leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Barbara and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Santa Barbara
Best match
51match

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.

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santa BarbaraVaranasi

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. Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSanta BarbaraVaranasi
Official language-Hindi, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation15 m76 m
Main airportSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureSanta BarbaraVaranasi
City population88,6651,198,491
People per km²81614,598
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Barbara 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.