VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Phuket 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 Phuket for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Phuket’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. Phuket 90, Samarkand 4: Phuket leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Samarkand 54: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Samarkand 14: Phuket leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Samarkand 40: Phuket leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Samarkand 30: Phuket leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket and Samarkand are level on 42.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Samarkand 32: Phuket leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

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.

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketSamarkand
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
Elevation19 m702 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketSamarkand
City population77,610546,303
People per km²6,4685,058
Museums within 10 km211
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 Phuket 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.