VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • 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. Barcelona 75, Samarkand 4: Barcelona leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Samarkand 54: Barcelona leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Samarkand 84: Barcelona leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Samarkand 14: Barcelona leads by 68 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Samarkand 40: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Samarkand 72: Barcelona leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Samarkand 30: Barcelona leads by 46 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Samarkand 58: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Samarkand 42: Barcelona leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Samarkand 24: Barcelona leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Samarkand 32: Barcelona leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaSamarkand
Official languageSpanishUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation9 m702 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaSamarkand
City population1,731,649546,303
People per km²17,0945,058
Museums within 10 km9511
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.