VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Buenos Aires 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 Buenos Aires for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Buenos Aires 7, Samarkand 4: Buenos Aires leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, Samarkand 54: Buenos Aires leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Samarkand 14: Buenos Aires leads by 81 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Samarkand 40: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Samarkand 30: Buenos Aires leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Samarkand 58: Buenos Aires leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, Samarkand 42: Buenos Aires leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Samarkand 24: Buenos Aires leads by 51 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, Samarkand 32: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Buenos Aires and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Buenos Aires
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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.

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Buenos AiresSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresSamarkand
Official languageSpanishUzbek
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+5
Emergency number117 or 911112
Elevation25 m702 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresSamarkand
City population3,121,707546,303
People per km²15,3555,058
Museums within 10 km7611
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

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