VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Bethany Beach 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 Bethany Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • day trips

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. Bethany Beach 72, Samarkand 4: Bethany Beach leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Samarkand 14: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Samarkand 40: Bethany Beach leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Samarkand 30: Bethany Beach leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Samarkand 32: Bethany Beach leads by 1 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bethany Beach and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Samarkand
Best match
45match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bethany Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
95 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
23 °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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Bethany BeachSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Bethany Beach's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Salisbury / Quail Ridge.

Bethany Beach 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. Bethany Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Salisbury / Quail Ridge (44.9 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachSamarkand
Official language-Uzbek
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m702 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachSamarkand
City population954546,303
People per km²3185,058
Museums within 10 km011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Bethany Beach 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.