VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Acapulco or Samarkand?

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 Acapulco for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Acapulco’s own page.

Choose Samarkand for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Samarkand’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. Acapulco 80, Samarkand 4: Acapulco leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Samarkand 54: Acapulco leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Samarkand 14: Acapulco leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Samarkand 40: Acapulco leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 57 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Samarkand 30: Acapulco leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Samarkand 24: Acapulco leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco and Samarkand are level on 32.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Samarkand.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Acapulco
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoSamarkand
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaUzbek
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation18 m702 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoSamarkand
City population658,609546,303
People per km²3505,058
Museums within 10 km311
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Samarkand somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.