VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Samarkand 4: Antigua Guatemala leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Samarkand 14: Antigua Guatemala leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Samarkand 40: Antigua Guatemala leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Samarkand 30: Antigua Guatemala leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Samarkand 58: Antigua Guatemala leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Samarkand 42: Antigua Guatemala leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Samarkand 32: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSamarkand
Official languageSpanishUzbek
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+5
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123112
Elevation1,582 m702 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSamarkand
City population59,091546,303
People per km²-5,058
Museums within 10 km211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.