VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Ghent 25, Samarkand 4: Ghent leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Samarkand 54: Ghent leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Samarkand 14: Ghent leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Samarkand 40: Samarkand leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Samarkand 72: Ghent leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Samarkand 30: Ghent leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Samarkand 58: Ghent leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Samarkand 42: Ghent leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Samarkand 24: Ghent leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Samarkand 32: Ghent leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

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.

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
GhentSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentSamarkand
Official languageFrench, German, DutchUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation12 m702 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGhentSamarkand
City population272,657546,303
People per km²1,7285,058
Museums within 10 km3011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Samarkand somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.