VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Ocho Rios 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 Ocho Rios for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocho Rios’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. Ocho Rios 78, Samarkand 4: Ocho Rios leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 68 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Samarkand 14: Ocho Rios leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios 72, Samarkand 40: Ocho Rios leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, Samarkand 30: Ocho Rios leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Samarkand 32: Ocho Rios leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocho Rios and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Samarkand
Best match
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.

Ocho Rios in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Ocho Rios's temperatures are measured 62 km from the centre, at Kingston / Norman Manley.

Ocho Rios has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosSamarkand
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
Elevation59 m702 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosSamarkand
City population16,671546,303
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 Ocho Rios 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.