VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Montego Bay 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 Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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. Montego Bay 84, Samarkand 4: Montego Bay leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Samarkand 14: Montego Bay leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Samarkand 40: Montego Bay leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Samarkand 30: Montego Bay leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Samarkand 24: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Samarkand 32: Montego Bay leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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.

Montego Bay in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BaySamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySamarkand
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisUzbek
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+5
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation19 m702 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySamarkand
City population123,994546,303
People per km²-5,058
Museums within 10 km011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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