VacationSelector

Varanasi or Washington DC?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
Varanasi

Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DC

Photo: Guohua Song, Pexels License

Your match

Varanasi
40
match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Washington DC
✓ Best match
56
match

Wins on families and nightlife 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.

VaranasiWashington DC
Beaches & swimming. Washington DC leads by 8 points.8
Food & drink. Washington DC leads by 12 points.12
Culture & sights. Washington DC leads by 4 points.4
Nightlife. Washington DC leads by 47 points.47
Nature & outdoors. Washington DC leads by 46 points.46
Day trips. Washington DC leads by 31 points.31
Good for families. Washington DC leads by 68 points.68
Getting around. Washington DC leads by 44 points.44
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 3 points.3
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 64 points.64
Live music & performing arts. Washington DC leads by 9 points.9
Wellness & relaxation. Varanasi leads by 4 points.4
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Varanasi and Washington DC.

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
JulyVaranasiWashington DC
Daytime high35 °C32 °C
Night-time low27 °C22 °C
Rainfall in the month249 mm108 mm
Sea temperatureNo sea25 °C
Daylight14 hours a day15 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
Varanasi
24
29
35
41
43
41
35
33
32
32
28
24
Washington DC
7
9
13
20
24
29
32
31
27
21
14
9
Sea temperature, °C
Varanasi
No coastline within reach
Washington DC
3
3
4
9
14
20
25
26
23
18
12
7
Rainfall, mm
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Washington DC
72
65
89
82
101
107
108
83
100
93
74
86
Daylight, hours per day
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Washington DC
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
10

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. Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureVaranasiWashington DC
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 m72 m
Main airportLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureVaranasiWashington DC
City population1,198,491689,545
People per km²14,5983,896
Museums within 10 km299
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Varanasi or Washington DC 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. 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. 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.