VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Bath 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 Bath for

  • wellness
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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. Bath 10, Samarkand 4: Bath leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Samarkand 14: Bath leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Samarkand 40: Bath leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Samarkand 72: Bath leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Samarkand 30: Bath leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Samarkand 58: Bath leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Samarkand 42: Bath leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Samarkand 24: Bath leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Samarkand 32: Bath leads by 46 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bath and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Bath
Best match
51match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on prices 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.

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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
BathSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath 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. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathSamarkand
Official languageEnglishUzbek
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation132 m702 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBathSamarkand
City population94,092546,303
People per km²3,2455,058
Museums within 10 km1711
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.