VacationSelector
Bodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour, Bodrum
BodrumBodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Bodrum by Serhio Magpie, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Bodrum 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 Bodrum for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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. Bodrum 80, Samarkand 4: Bodrum leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Bodrum 60, Samarkand 54: Bodrum leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Bodrum 45, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Bodrum 65, Samarkand 14: Bodrum leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bodrum 60, Samarkand 40: Bodrum leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Bodrum and Samarkand are level on 72.
Good for families. Bodrum 66, Samarkand 30: Bodrum leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Bodrum 42, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Bodrum 45, Samarkand 42: Bodrum leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bodrum 38, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bodrum 32, Samarkand 24: Bodrum leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bodrum 52, Samarkand 32: Bodrum leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bodrum and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Bodrum
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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.

Bodrum in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BodrumSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Bodrum's temperatures are measured 43 km from the centre, at Kos Airport.

Bodrum 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. Bodrum: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kos Airport (42.7 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBodrumSamarkand
Official languageTurkishUzbek
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m702 m
Main airportMilas Bodrum International Airport (BJV)32 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBodrumSamarkand
City population175,000546,303
People per km²3145,058
Museums within 10 km411
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bodrum 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). 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.