VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Hurghada 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 Hurghada for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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. Hurghada 84, Samarkand 4: Hurghada leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Samarkand 14: Hurghada leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Samarkand 40: Hurghada leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Samarkand 30: Hurghada leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Hurghada and Samarkand are level on 80.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Samarkand 32: Hurghada leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Hurghada
43match

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

Samarkand
45match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Hurghada in July

37 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaSamarkand
Official languageArabicUzbek
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+5
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180112
Elevation11 m702 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaSamarkand
City population214,247546,303
People per km²-5,058
Museums within 10 km111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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