VacationSelector
The Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel, Amman
AmmanThe Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Amman by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Amman 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 Amman for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • prices

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. Amman 22, Samarkand 4: Amman leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Amman 62, Samarkand 54: Amman leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Amman 54, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Amman 32, Samarkand 14: Amman leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amman 45, Samarkand 40: Amman leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Amman 80, Samarkand 72: Amman leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Amman 38, Samarkand 30: Amman leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Amman 30, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Amman and Samarkand are level on 42.
Affordability. Amman 58, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amman 27, Samarkand 24: Amman leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amman 55, Samarkand 32: Amman leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amman and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Amman
45match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Amman in July

33 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
AmmanSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Amman has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Amman's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Mafraq.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Amman: 1994-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Amman Airport (6 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmmanSamarkand
Official languageArabicUzbek
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation776 m702 m
Main airportQueen Alia International Airport (AMM)26 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureAmmanSamarkand
City population4,007,526546,303
People per km²2,3855,058
Museums within 10 km811
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amman 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.