VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Melbourne 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 Melbourne for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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. Melbourne 50, Samarkand 4: Melbourne leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Samarkand 54: Melbourne leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Samarkand 14: Melbourne leads by 61 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Samarkand 40: Melbourne leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Samarkand 30: Melbourne leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Samarkand 58: Melbourne leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Samarkand 42: Melbourne leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Samarkand 24: Melbourne leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Samarkand 32: Melbourne leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Melbourne and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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.

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
MelbourneSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneSamarkand
Official languageEnglishUzbek
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number000112
Elevation31 m702 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneSamarkand
City population5,350,705546,303
People per km²5355,058
Museums within 10 km4311
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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