VacationSelector
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Varanasi or Virginia Beach?

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 Varanasi for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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. Varanasi 4, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Varanasi 55, Virginia Beach 42: Varanasi leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Varanasi 80, Virginia Beach 30: Varanasi leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Varanasi 10, Virginia Beach 37: Virginia Beach leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Varanasi 18, Virginia Beach 56: Virginia Beach leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Varanasi 42, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Varanasi 5, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 70 points.
Getting around. Varanasi 28, Virginia Beach 27: Varanasi leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Varanasi 55, Virginia Beach 32: Varanasi leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Varanasi 92, Virginia Beach 40: Varanasi leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi 58, Virginia Beach 38: Varanasi leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Varanasi 30, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Varanasi and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Varanasi
40match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Varanasi in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
249 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
VaranasiVirginia Beach

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. Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureVaranasiVirginia Beach
Official languageHindi, English-
CurrencyIndian Rupee (INR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number108 or 112911
Elevation76 m7 m
Main airportLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureVaranasiVirginia Beach
City population1,198,491459,470
People per km²14,598-
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Varanasi or Virginia Beach 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.