VacationSelector
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Luxor 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 Luxor for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • food and drink
  • getting around
  • 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. Luxor 6, Samarkand 4: Luxor leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Luxor 30, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Luxor 95, Samarkand 84: Luxor leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Luxor 10, Samarkand 14: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luxor 32, Samarkand 40: Samarkand leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Luxor 62, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Luxor and Samarkand are level on 30.
Getting around. Luxor 35, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Luxor 25, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Luxor 90, Samarkand 80: Luxor leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luxor 10, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luxor 28, Samarkand 32: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luxor and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Luxor
38match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Samarkand
Best match
45match

Wins on food and drink and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Luxor in July

41 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
0 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
LuxorSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Luxor 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. Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuxorSamarkand
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
Elevation89 m702 m
Main airportLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLuxorSamarkand
City population202,232546,303
People per km²4865,058
Museums within 10 km411
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

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