VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Fes 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 Fes for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

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. Fes 5, Samarkand 4: Fes leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Fes 62, Samarkand 54: Fes leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Samarkand 14: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Samarkand 40: Fes leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Fes 62, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Samarkand 30: Samarkand leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Samarkand 42: Fes leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Fes and Samarkand are level on 80.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Samarkand 24: Fes leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Samarkand 32: Fes leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Fes
Best match
49match

Wins on wellness and shopping with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
FesSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFesSamarkand
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightUzbek
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCE50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+5
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation408 m702 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureFesSamarkand
City population1,167,842546,303
People per km²3,6505,058
Museums within 10 km211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

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