VacationSelector
The clock tower in the old town, Kotor
KotorThe clock tower in the old town
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Kotor by Muhammed Fatih Beki, Pexels License; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Kotor 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 Kotor for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

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. Kotor 57, Samarkand 4: Kotor leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Kotor 37, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Kotor 55, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Kotor 30, Samarkand 14: Kotor leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kotor 80, Samarkand 40: Kotor leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Kotor and Samarkand are level on 72.
Good for families. Kotor 36, Samarkand 30: Kotor leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Kotor 48, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Kotor 20, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Kotor 57, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kotor 20, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kotor 24, Samarkand 32: Samarkand leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kotor 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

Kotor
45match

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

Samarkand
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.

Kotor in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KotorSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Kotor 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.

Kotor's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Podgorica-Grad.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kotor: 1991-2020 normals, Tivat (4.2 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKotorSamarkand
Official languageMontenegrinUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m702 m
Main airportTivat Airport (TIV)5 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureKotorSamarkand
City population562546,303
People per km²-5,058
Museums within 10 km311
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

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