VacationSelector

Santiago de Compostela 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.

The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela

Photo: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), 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

Santiago de Compostela
✓ Best match
54
match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Varanasi
40
match

Wins on prices and shopping 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.

Santiago de CompostelaVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Santiago de Compostela leads by 28 points.28
Food & drink. Santiago de Compostela leads by 13 points.13
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 10 points.10
Nightlife. Santiago de Compostela leads by 35 points.35
Nature & outdoors. Santiago de Compostela leads by 44 points.44
Day trips. Santiago de Compostela leads by 30 points.30
Good for families. Santiago de Compostela leads by 37 points.37
Getting around. Santiago de Compostela leads by 42 points.42
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 20 points.20
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 28 points.28
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi leads by 18 points.18
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago de Compostela leads by 12 points.12
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago de Compostela 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
JulySantiago de CompostelaVaranasi
Daytime high25 °C35 °C
Night-time low13 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month41 mm249 mm
Sunshine8 hours a dayNo figure
Sea temperature17 °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
Santiago de Compostela
11
13
15
17
20
23
25
25
23
19
14
12
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Sea temperature, °C
Santiago de Compostela
14
13
13
14
15
16
17
17
17
16
15
14
Varanasi
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Santiago de Compostela
217
149
153
136
116
61
41
61
91
208
223
222
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Santiago de Compostela
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
Santiago de Compostela
3
4
5
6
7
7
8
8
6
4
3
3
Varanasi
No sunshine record

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. Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureSantiago de CompostelaVaranasi
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
Elevation260 m76 m
Main airportSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureSantiago de CompostelaVaranasi
City population100,9651,198,491
People per km²45914,598
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santiago de Compostela 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.