Photos: Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.
Taipei 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 Taipei for
- families
- nature and the outdoors
- getting around
What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Taipei and Varanasi.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on families and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.
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.
Taipei in July
Varanasi in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
Where the figures come from
Taipei 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. Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.
Before you go
| Measure | Taipei | Varanasi |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Taiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect | Hindi, English |
| Currency | New Taiwan Dollar (TWD) | Indian Rupee (INR) |
| Sockets | AB110 V, 60 Hz | CM230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+8 | UTC+5:30 |
| Emergency number | 110 or 112 or 119 | 108 or 112 |
| Elevation | 10 m | 76 m |
| Main airport | Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre | Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations |
By the numbers
| Measure | Taipei | Varanasi |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,429,429 | 1,198,491 |
| People per km² | 8,938 | 14,598 |
| Museums within 10 km | 69 | 2 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 8 months | - |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Taipei or Varanasi somewhere new.