VacationSelector
The Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica in Fort Kochi, Kochi
KochiThe Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica in Fort Kochi
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Kochi by Vis M, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Kochi 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 Kochi for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Kochi’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. Kochi 38, Samarkand 4: Kochi leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Kochi 66, Samarkand 54: Kochi leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Kochi 62, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Kochi 18, Samarkand 14: Kochi leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kochi 55, Samarkand 40: Kochi leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Kochi 52, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Kochi 40, Samarkand 30: Kochi leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Kochi 44, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Kochi 45, Samarkand 42: Kochi leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Kochi 88, Samarkand 80: Kochi leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kochi 40, Samarkand 24: Kochi leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kochi 70, Samarkand 32: Kochi leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kochi and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Kochi
Best match
52match

Wins on wellness and beaches 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.

Kochi in July

27 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
439 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
KochiSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Kochi has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kochi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKochiSamarkand
Official languageHindi, EnglishUzbek
CurrencyIndian Rupee (INR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+5
Emergency number108 or 112112
Elevation0 m702 m
Main airportCochin International Airport (COK)24 km from centre36 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureKochiSamarkand
City population677,381546,303
People per km²7,1385,058
Museums within 10 km411
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 Kochi or Samarkand somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.