VacationSelector
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Marseille 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 Marseille for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Marseille 72, Samarkand 4: Marseille leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Marseille 67, Samarkand 54: Marseille leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Marseille 63, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Marseille 57, Samarkand 14: Marseille leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marseille 83, Samarkand 40: Marseille leads by 43 points.
Day trips. Marseille 86, Samarkand 72: Marseille leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Marseille 50, Samarkand 30: Marseille leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Marseille 57, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Marseille 47, Samarkand 42: Marseille leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Marseille 45, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marseille 56, Samarkand 24: Marseille leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marseille 37, Samarkand 32: Marseille leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marseille and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Marseille
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Marseille in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MarseilleSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarseilleSamarkand
Official languageFrenchUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m702 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMarseilleSamarkand
City population886,040546,303
People per km²3,6835,058
Museums within 10 km2711
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

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