VacationSelector
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Las Vegas 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 Las Vegas for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • prices

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. Las Vegas 10, Samarkand 4: Las Vegas leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Las Vegas 68, Samarkand 54: Las Vegas leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Las Vegas 25, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Las Vegas 88, Samarkand 14: Las Vegas leads by 74 points.
Nature & outdoors. Las Vegas 68, Samarkand 40: Las Vegas leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Las Vegas 25, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Las Vegas 25, Samarkand 30: Samarkand leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Las Vegas 38, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Las Vegas 64, Samarkand 42: Las Vegas leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Las Vegas 35, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Las Vegas 78, Samarkand 24: Las Vegas leads by 54 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Las Vegas 40, Samarkand 32: Las Vegas leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Las Vegas 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

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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.

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
Las VegasSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLas VegasSamarkand
Official language-Uzbek
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation610 m702 m
Main airportHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLas VegasSamarkand
City population641,903546,303
People per km²1,8435,058
Museums within 10 km2111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

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