VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

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

Galway 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 Galway for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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. Galway 28, Samarkand 4: Galway leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Samarkand 14: Galway leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Samarkand 40: Galway leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Samarkand 30: Galway leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Galway and Samarkand are level on 58.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Samarkand 24: Galway leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 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: Galway and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Galway
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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
GalwaySamarkand

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwaySamarkand
Official languageEnglish, IrishUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation25 m702 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGalwaySamarkand
City population83,456546,303
People per km²1,5635,058
Museums within 10 km411
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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