We will be in Varanasii for three nights in November and I guess there is doctor convention and our tour operator is having trouble findings rooms. I have read through some of the posts here and am surprised there are more hotels mentioned for Varanasi.

I liked the hotel Clark Varanasi. Great rooms. Great service. The downside is it is not right on the Ganges

Temple on the Ganges and Palace on the Ganges are both right on the river ar Assi Ghat. Very nice location.

Along the Ganges is definitely the best place to stay, for two reasons: one, you'll be spending virtually all your time on the river bank anyway; and two, by choosing a guest house that is right at the river you at least have a fighting chance of finding it again, as all you have to do is walk along the river bank until you spot it (if you try walking along the streets, we may never hear from you again!)

There are literally dozens of places along the river bank, and the Assi Ghat (recommended above) is one of the more serene spots, though a long way "down" from the main ghat where all the activity is going on at night. We chose to stay at Scindhia Guest House, right on the Scindhia Ghat, which is only two or three ghats away from the main ghat (right next to Scindhia is the Burning Ghat, and you can smell the smoke from the pyres at all hours of the day and night, which may be either a positive or a negative depending on how you feel about this). We couldn't have been happier with our room at the Scindhia Guest House.... it was cheap (about 450 rupees for a double with ensuite and balcony overlooking the ghat), comfortable, and the outlook from the balcony was to die for, when we could get out onto it (a territorial monkey thought it was HIS balcony, and regularly chased us back into our room; we were warned not to wash our clothes and leave them to dry on the balcony, or the next time we saw our undies, it was likely to be on the head of a monkey!)

Scindhia Ghat is only five minutes' walk along the river bank from the main ghat... not a bad place to be if you only have a couple of days. You can't get lost, as there is a path and stairway leading from the ghat right to the guesthouse.

Sorry I didn't read my message before I posted. Typos! I have been looking into guesthouses and was wondering about getting to them with your luggage. I have heard this can be difficult and that you have to "dance" all kind of dung (not just cow).

You come from the airport or train via cab. If the cab can get you to your hotel, as they could at Assi ghat, it was nice. If not, you may need to walk a bit or take a cycle rickshaw.

Do not pay more than 40 rupees for a rickshaw within the old part of Varanasi. 5-20 is the proper amount for most rides.

and yes, you have to dance everywhere in Varanasi- dung, rubbish, animals, potholes. Take a flahlight if you'll be out at night or you can break your neck!

The rickshaw driver will handle your luggage if you take a guesthouse by the river where you can't ride to the door. You just follow along behind, along laneways so narrow that a bike can hardly manage. The golden rule, of course, is, never give him the money until you are actually at the door of your chosen hotel, and until you are quite sure that it is, in fact, the right hotel. Sometimes he will try to steer you to a different one with a similar name, as he collects a commission for doing this.

I'll second Alan's post for Scindhia Guest House. We stayed there this past december and really enjoyed it. The location and the views are awesome. We had a large balcony room with a couch for 900r, but I saw the 450r rooms and those seemed just as nice. They have a vegetarian restaurant which is good as well (not open for lunch, just breakfast and dinner). The manager Kush is one of the most welcoming and helpful people we met in India.

Apparantly the touts and autorickshaw drivers are really problem in Varanasi and there is a huge racket about commissions. Our guest house picked us up from the train station for free and made sure we understood that if we didnt call them for a pickup and arrived by any other means we would have to pay a huge commission, even though we had already reserved. We called, they arrived, and we set out on a truely hair-raising ride to the guest house. The autorickshaw cannot go all the way to the guesthouse so there was about a 5 minute walk with the bags. If it is a problem you can probably notify the guesthouse in advance and they can send a porter to help out (cheap).

Alan, I had to laugh about your comments about the monkeys. Right after we checked in we were leaving our room to go get something to eat. There were a few monkeys outside the door blocking the way, one was a mom and baby. We had just read the warnings about the "crazy monkeys" in our room and were afraid to go past them. The owner's wife was next door and saw our hesitation so she yelled to just ignore them and go past, which we then did without incident but they can be pretty intimidating at times!

I forgot, I wanted to include the guest house's web site :

http://scindhiaguesthouse.com

The guest house looks really cool.
I am sorry I didn't stay ON the Ganges when I was there.