VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Ottawa 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 Ottawa for

  • families
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Ottawa’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. Ottawa 35, Samarkand 4: Ottawa leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Samarkand 14: Ottawa leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Samarkand 40: Ottawa leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Samarkand 30: Ottawa leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Samarkand 58: Ottawa leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Samarkand 24: Ottawa leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Samarkand 32: Ottawa leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Ottawa
Best match
51match

Wins on families and beaches 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.

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaSamarkand
Official languageFrench, EnglishUzbek
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation70 m702 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaSamarkand
City population1,017,449546,303
People per km²3665,058
Museums within 10 km2011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

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