VacationSelector
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Portland 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 Portland for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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. Portland 20, Samarkand 4: Portland leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Portland 68, Samarkand 54: Portland leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Portland 38, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Portland 52, Samarkand 14: Portland leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Portland 84, Samarkand 40: Portland leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Portland 58, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Portland 55, Samarkand 30: Portland leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Portland 62, Samarkand 58: Portland leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Portland 52, Samarkand 42: Portland leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Portland 38, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Portland 55, Samarkand 24: Portland leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Portland 42, Samarkand 32: Portland leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Portland and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PortlandSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortlandSamarkand
Official language-Uzbek
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation152 m702 m
Main airportPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePortlandSamarkand
City population652,503546,303
People per km²1,7365,058
Museums within 10 km1711
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

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