VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • prices

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. Cape Town 58, Samarkand 4: Cape Town leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Samarkand 54: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Samarkand 14: Cape Town leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Samarkand 40: Cape Town leads by 58 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Samarkand 30: Cape Town leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Samarkand 42: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Samarkand 24: Cape Town leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Samarkand 32: Cape Town leads by 13 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownSamarkand
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageUzbek
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation5 m702 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownSamarkand
City population3,776,313546,303
People per km²1,5385,058
Museums within 10 km2211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town 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.