VacationSelector

Santiago 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 terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
Santiago

Photo: Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, 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
✓ Best match
55
match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

SantiagoVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Santiago leads by 8 points.8
Food & drink. Santiago leads by 5 points.5
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 28 points.28
Nightlife. Santiago leads by 50 points.50
Nature & outdoors. Santiago leads by 65 points.65
Day trips. Santiago leads by 28 points.28
Good for families. Santiago leads by 52 points.52
Getting around. Santiago leads by 40 points.40
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 3 points.3
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 34 points.34
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi leads by 3 points.3
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago leads by 7 points.7
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago 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
JulySantiagoVaranasi
Daytime high14 °C35 °C
Night-time low4 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month52 mm249 mm
Sunshine4 hours a dayNo figure
Daylight10 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
28
27
26
21
18
15
14
16
19
22
25
27
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Rainfall, mm
Santiago
0
2
5
16
46
87
52
44
27
11
6
3
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Santiago
14
13
12
11
10
10
10
11
12
13
14
14
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Santiago
11
9
8
6
5
3
4
5
6
8
9
11
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: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoVaranasi
Official languageSpanishHindi, English
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132108 or 112
Elevation575 m76 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoVaranasi
City population6,257,5161,198,491
People per km²7,46814,598
Museums within 10 km542
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santiago 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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.