VacationSelector
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Cannes 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 Cannes for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights

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. Cannes 80, Samarkand 4: Cannes leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Cannes 55, Samarkand 54: Cannes leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Cannes 38, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Cannes 42, Samarkand 14: Cannes leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cannes 72, Samarkand 40: Cannes leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Cannes 86, Samarkand 72: Cannes leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cannes 56, Samarkand 30: Cannes leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Cannes 68, Samarkand 58: Cannes leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cannes 60, Samarkand 42: Cannes leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Cannes 22, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cannes 38, Samarkand 24: Cannes leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cannes 42, Samarkand 32: Cannes leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cannes and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Cannes
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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.

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CannesSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCannesSamarkand
Official languageFrenchUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m702 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCannesSamarkand
City population74,350546,303
People per km²3,7935,058
Museums within 10 km1611
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Cannes 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.