VacationSelector

Tirana 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 Great Mosque with the mountains behind, Tirana
Tirana

Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, 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

Tirana
✓ Best match
49
match

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

Varanasi
40
match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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.

TiranaVaranasi
Beaches & swimming. Tirana leads by 42 points.42
Food & drink. Tirana leads by 2 points.2
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 38 points.38
Nightlife. Tirana leads by 48 points.48
Nature & outdoors. Tirana leads by 44 points.44
Day trips. Tirana leads by 22 points.22
Good for families. Tirana leads by 35 points.35
Getting around. Tirana leads by 26 points.26
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 23 points.23
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 16 points.16
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi leads by 26 points.26
Wellness & relaxation. Varanasi leads by 3 points.3
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tirana 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
JulyTiranaVaranasi
Daytime high31 °C35 °C
Night-time low17 °C27 °C
Rainfall in the month43 mm249 mm
Sunshine12 hours a dayNo figure
Sea temperature24 °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
Tirana
12
13
16
19
24
28
31
31
27
22
17
13
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Sea temperature, °C
Tirana
15
14
14
16
19
23
24
25
24
21
19
16
Varanasi
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Tirana
143
117
116
103
84
66
43
55
78
114
172
148
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Daylight, hours per day
Tirana
10
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Tirana
4
4
5
6
9
10
12
11
9
7
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. Tirana: 1961-1990 normals, Tirana (3 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureTiranaVaranasi
Official languageAlbanianHindi, English
CurrencyLek (ALL)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112108 or 112
Elevation110 m76 m
Main airportTirana International Airport Mother Teresa (TIA)13 km from centre121 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureTiranaVaranasi
City population389,3231,198,491
People per km²9,31414,598
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Tirana 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.