VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Nuevo Vallarta 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 Nuevo Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Nuevo Vallarta’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. Nuevo Vallarta 84, Samarkand 4: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 78 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Samarkand 14: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Samarkand 40: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Samarkand 30: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Samarkand 32: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on beaches and families 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.

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Nuevo Vallarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaSamarkand
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaUzbek
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m702 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaSamarkand
City population1,301546,303
People per km²-5,058
Museums within 10 km011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Nuevo Vallarta 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). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.