VacationSelector
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Santo Domingo 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 Santo Domingo for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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. Santo Domingo 58, Varanasi 4: Santo Domingo leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Santo Domingo 58, Varanasi 55: Santo Domingo leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Santo Domingo 64, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Santo Domingo 66, Varanasi 10: Santo Domingo leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santo Domingo 36, Varanasi 18: Santo Domingo leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Santo Domingo 44, Varanasi 42: Santo Domingo leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Santo Domingo 40, Varanasi 5: Santo Domingo leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Santo Domingo 40, Varanasi 28: Santo Domingo leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Santo Domingo 44, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Santo Domingo 66, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santo Domingo 46, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santo Domingo 22, Varanasi 30: Varanasi leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santo Domingo and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Santo Domingo
Best match
49match

Wins on nightlife and beaches 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.

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 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
Santo DomingoVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Santo Domingo has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSanto DomingoVaranasi
Official languageSpanishHindi, English
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation14 m76 m
Main airportLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureSanto DomingoVaranasi
City population2,201,9411,198,491
People per km²1,69114,598
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santo Domingo 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.