VacationSelector
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Varanasi or Wellington?

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 Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Varanasi 55, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Varanasi 80, Wellington 44: Varanasi leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Varanasi 10, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Varanasi 18, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 60 points.
Day trips. Varanasi 42, Wellington 40: Varanasi leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Varanasi 5, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 57 points.
Getting around. Varanasi 28, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Varanasi 55, Wellington 42: Varanasi leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Varanasi 92, Wellington 33: Varanasi leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi 58, Wellington 56: Varanasi leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Varanasi and Wellington are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Varanasi and Wellington.

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.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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 recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
VaranasiWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

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. Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureVaranasiWellington
Official languageHindi, EnglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyIndian Rupee (INR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number108 or 112111
Elevation76 m0 m
Main airportLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureVaranasiWellington
City population1,198,491216,200
People per km²14,598487
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Varanasi or Wellington 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.