VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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. Interlaken 30, Samarkand 4: Interlaken leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 76 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Samarkand 14: Interlaken leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Samarkand 40: Interlaken leads by 57 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Samarkand 72: Interlaken leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Samarkand 30: Interlaken leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Samarkand 58: Interlaken leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 72 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Samarkand 32: Interlaken leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

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

Samarkand
Best match
45match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenSamarkand
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshUzbek
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation571 m702 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenSamarkand
City population6,123546,303
People per km²1,4245,058
Museums within 10 km311
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.