VacationSelector
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Steamboat Springs 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 Steamboat Springs for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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. Steamboat Springs 7, Varanasi 4: Steamboat Springs leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Steamboat Springs 30, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Steamboat Springs 14, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 66 points.
Nightlife. Steamboat Springs 20, Varanasi 10: Steamboat Springs leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Steamboat Springs 88, Varanasi 18: Steamboat Springs leads by 70 points.
Day trips. Steamboat Springs 12, Varanasi 42: Varanasi leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Steamboat Springs 62, Varanasi 5: Steamboat Springs leads by 57 points.
Getting around. Steamboat Springs 46, Varanasi 28: Steamboat Springs leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Steamboat Springs 22, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Steamboat Springs 17, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 75 points.
Live music & performing arts. Steamboat Springs 28, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Steamboat Springs 70, Varanasi 30: Steamboat Springs leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Steamboat Springs and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Varanasi
Best match
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.

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
249 mmrain in the month
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Steamboat SpringsVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs 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. Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSteamboat SpringsVaranasi
Official language-Hindi, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation2,052 m76 m
Main airportYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureSteamboat SpringsVaranasi
City population13,2241,198,491
People per km²50314,598
Museums within 10 km02
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 Steamboat Springs 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. 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.