VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Paphos 76, Samarkand 4: Paphos leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Samarkand 14: Paphos leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Samarkand 40: Paphos leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Samarkand 30: Paphos leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Samarkand 32: Paphos leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Paphos
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and families 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.

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosSamarkand
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation72 m702 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosSamarkand
City population35,961546,303
People per km²1,9875,058
Museums within 10 km411
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.