City Comparison
Compare two incredible cities side by side — culture, food, local tips, and immersive 4K virtual walks.
Take a free virtual walk through both Varanasi and Kolkata without leaving your screen.Varanasi is known for varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world — over 3,000 years old. Kolkata is famous for kolkata is the only indian city still running hand-pulled rickshaws — a practice banned elsewhere but maintained by the city's high court. Compare culture, food, best seasons, and local tips — then explore both on Nearaway's 4K virtual walking tours.
Country
🇮🇳 Varanasi
India
🇮🇳 Kolkata
India
Continent
🇮🇳 Varanasi
Asia
🇮🇳 Kolkata
Asia
Population
🇮🇳 Varanasi
1,201,696
🇮🇳 Kolkata
14,850,000
Best Season
🇮🇳 Varanasi
Winter (November–February) — avoid monsoon for ghat walks
🇮🇳 Kolkata
October–February (cool, dry; Durga Puja in October is a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle)
Currency
🇮🇳 Varanasi
Indian Rupee (₹)
🇮🇳 Kolkata
Indian Rupee (INR ₹)
Greeting
🇮🇳 Varanasi
Namaste / Jai Shri Ram
🇮🇳 Kolkata
Namaskar (নমস্কার) — formal; Kemon acho (কেমন আছ) — 'how are you?' casual
Hire a boat at dawn to witness the Ganga Aarti from the water — watching from the ghats is crowded. Negotiate the price before boarding.
Durga Puja (October) transforms Kolkata into the world's largest open-air art festival — over 3,500 pandals (temporary bamboo pavilions) compete with sculptural and thematic installations, and the entire city walks through the night for four days. Outside puja season, Kumartuli (the potters' quarter) north of Shobhabazar is where all the idols are made year-round — watching craftsmen shape 20-foot clay goddesses is extraordinary. The yellow Ambassador taxis and hand-pulled rickshaws are becoming rare — take one while they still exist.
🇮🇳 Varanasi Fun Fact
Varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world — over 3,000 years old. Mark Twain wrote: 'Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend.'
🇮🇳 Kolkata Fun Fact
Kolkata is the only Indian city still running hand-pulled rickshaws — a practice banned elsewhere but maintained by the city's High Court. The Howrah Bridge (1943) carries an estimated 100,000 vehicles and 150,000 pedestrians daily with no nuts or bolts — the entire structure is held together by rivets. Kolkata has won more Nobel Prizes per capita than any other city in Asia (Rabindranath Tagore 1913, Mother Teresa 1979, Amartya Sen 1998).
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