VacationSelector
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Montevideo 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 Montevideo for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Montevideo’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. Montevideo 55, Samarkand 4: Montevideo leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Montevideo 57, Samarkand 54: Montevideo leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Montevideo 54, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Montevideo 50, Samarkand 14: Montevideo leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montevideo 34, Samarkand 40: Samarkand leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Montevideo 55, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Montevideo 55, Samarkand 30: Montevideo leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Montevideo 54, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Montevideo 36, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Montevideo 42, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montevideo 57, Samarkand 24: Montevideo leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montevideo 38, Samarkand 32: Montevideo leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Montevideo
Best match
49match

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.

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontevideoSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontevideoSamarkand
Official language-Uzbek
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation41 m702 m
Main airportCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMontevideoSamarkand
City population1,302,954546,303
People per km²1,7855,058
Museums within 10 km3611
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

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