VacationSelector
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Valparaiso 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 Valparaiso for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’s own page.

Choose Varanasi for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • 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. Valparaiso 36, Varanasi 4: Valparaiso leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Valparaiso 50, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Valparaiso 62, Varanasi 80: Varanasi leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Valparaiso 56, Varanasi 10: Valparaiso leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Valparaiso 60, Varanasi 18: Valparaiso leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Valparaiso 63, Varanasi 42: Valparaiso leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Valparaiso 33, Varanasi 5: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Valparaiso 44, Varanasi 28: Valparaiso leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Valparaiso 30, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Valparaiso 60, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Valparaiso 38, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Valparaiso 18, Varanasi 30: Varanasi leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Valparaiso and Varanasi.

Your match

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

Valparaiso
Best match
46match

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

Varanasi
40match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 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
ValparaisoVaranasi

Where the figures come from

Valparaiso 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. Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureValparaisoVaranasi
Official languageSpanishHindi, English
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132108 or 112
Elevation21 m76 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureValparaisoVaranasi
City population296,6551,198,491
People per km²6,18014,598
Museums within 10 km172
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Valparaiso 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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.

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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.