VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Oaxaca 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 Oaxaca for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • 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. Oaxaca 5, Samarkand 4: Oaxaca leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Samarkand 54: Oaxaca leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, Samarkand 14: Oaxaca leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, Samarkand 40: Oaxaca leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Samarkand 30: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Samarkand 42: Oaxaca leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca 38, Samarkand 24: Oaxaca leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, Samarkand 32: Oaxaca leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Oaxaca
Best match
54match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaSamarkand
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
Elevation1,555 m702 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaSamarkand
City population258,913546,303
People per km²3,0285,058
Museums within 10 km1011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

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