VacationSelector
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Tulum 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 Tulum for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Tulum’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. Tulum 88, Varanasi 4: Tulum leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Tulum 52, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Tulum 30, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Tulum 60, Varanasi 10: Tulum leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tulum 76, Varanasi 18: Tulum leads by 58 points.
Day trips. Tulum 68, Varanasi 42: Tulum leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Tulum 60, Varanasi 5: Tulum leads by 55 points.
Getting around. Tulum 25, Varanasi 28: Varanasi leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Tulum 35, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Tulum 30, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 62 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tulum 15, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tulum 85, Varanasi 30: Tulum leads by 55 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tulum and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Tulum
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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.

Tulum in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
29 °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
TulumVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Tulum 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.

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. Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureTulumVaranasi
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaHindi, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation5 m76 m
Main airportFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureTulumVaranasi
City population33,3741,198,491
People per km²-14,598
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Tulum or Varanasi somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.