VacationSelector

Thessaloniki 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 White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki

Photo: Destinygreece, 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

Thessaloniki
✓ Best match
61
match

Wins on nightlife and beaches 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.

ThessalonikiVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Thessaloniki leads by 51 points.51
Food & drink. Thessaloniki leads by 22 points.22
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 7 points.7
Nightlife. Thessaloniki leads by 66 points.66
Nature & outdoors. Thessaloniki leads by 48 points.48
Day trips. Thessaloniki leads by 32 points.32
Good for families. Thessaloniki leads by 45 points.45
Getting around. Thessaloniki leads by 32 points.32
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 5 points.5
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 26 points.26
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi leads by 6 points.6
Wellness & relaxation. Thessaloniki leads by 3 points.3
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Thessaloniki 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
JulyThessalonikiVaranasi
Daytime high32 °C35 °C
Night-time low21 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month23 mm249 mm
Sunshine11 hours a dayNo figure
Sea temperature26 °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
Thessaloniki
10
11
15
19
25
30
32
32
27
21
16
11
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Sea temperature, °C
Thessaloniki
14
13
13
15
19
23
26
27
25
21
18
15
Varanasi
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Thessaloniki
35
32
38
36
44
30
23
21
33
41
38
56
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Thessaloniki
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Thessaloniki
4
4
6
6
9
11
11
10
8
6
4
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. Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureThessalonikiVaranasi
Official languageGreekHindi, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112108 or 112
Elevation6 m76 m
Main airportThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureThessalonikiVaranasi
City population309,6171,198,491
People per km²16,04214,598
Museums within 10 km312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Thessaloniki 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.