VacationSelector

Varanasi or Zadar?

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

People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
Zadar

Photo: Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped

Your match

Varanasi
40
match

Wins on prices and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Zadar
✓ Best match
51
match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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.

VaranasiZadar
Beaches & swimming. Zadar leads by 68 points.68
Food & drink. Varanasi leads by 10 points.10
Culture & sights. Varanasi leads by 25 points.25
Nightlife. Zadar leads by 28 points.28
Nature & outdoors. Zadar leads by 64 points.64
Day trips. Zadar leads by 28 points.28
Good for families. Zadar leads by 50 points.50
Getting around. Zadar leads by 30 points.30
Shopping & style. Varanasi leads by 28 points.28
Affordability. Varanasi leads by 40 points.40
Live music & performing arts. Varanasi leads by 30 points.30
Wellness & relaxation. Zadar leads by 5 points.5
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Varanasi and Zadar.

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
JulyVaranasiZadar
Daytime high35 °C31 °C
Night-time low27 °C18 °C
Rainfall in the month249 mm25 mm
Sea temperatureNo sea24 °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
Zadar
10
11
15
19
23
28
31
31
26
21
16
12
Sea temperature, °C
Varanasi
No coastline within reach
Zadar
14
13
13
14
18
22
24
25
23
20
18
16
Rainfall, mm
Varanasi
12
14
10
11
23
110
249
200
146
34
2
5
Zadar
73
64
59
62
58
49
25
32
82
80
117
99
Daylight, hours per day
Varanasi
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
Zadar
9
10
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9

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.

Zadar's rainfall is measured 117 km from the centre, at Split / Marjan.

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. Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureVaranasiZadar
Official languageHindi, EnglishCroatian
CurrencyIndian Rupee (INR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number108 or 112112
Elevation76 m5 m
Main airportLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureVaranasiZadar
City population1,198,49170,779
People per km²14,598-
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Zadar 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.