VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Penang 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 Penang for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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. Penang 44, Samarkand 4: Penang leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Samarkand 54: Penang leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Samarkand 14: Penang leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Samarkand 40: Penang leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Samarkand 30: Penang leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Penang and Samarkand are level on 42.
Affordability. Penang 78, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Samarkand 24: Penang leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Samarkand 32: Penang leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on day trips 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.

Penang in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
12 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangSamarkand
Official languageMalayUzbek
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+5
Emergency number999112
Elevation4 m702 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasurePenangSamarkand
City population794,313546,303
People per km²-5,058
Museums within 10 km911
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Penang 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). 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.