VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Pattaya 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 Pattaya for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • 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. Pattaya 66, Samarkand 4: Pattaya leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Samarkand 54: Pattaya leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Samarkand 14: Pattaya leads by 62 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya and Samarkand are level on 40.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Samarkand 30: Pattaya leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya and Samarkand are level on 42.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Samarkand 80: Pattaya leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Samarkand 24: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Samarkand 32: Pattaya leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine 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
PattayaSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaSamarkand
Official languageThaiUzbek
CurrencyBaht (THB)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+5
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation35 m702 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaSamarkand
City population119,532546,303
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 Pattaya 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.