VacationSelector
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Porto 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 Porto for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • 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. Porto 40, Samarkand 4: Porto leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Porto 70, Samarkand 54: Porto leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Porto 68, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Porto 65, Samarkand 14: Porto leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Porto 64, Samarkand 40: Porto leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Porto 79, Samarkand 72: Porto leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Porto 52, Samarkand 30: Porto leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Porto 66, Samarkand 58: Porto leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Porto 52, Samarkand 42: Porto leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Porto 62, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Porto 52, Samarkand 24: Porto leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Porto 34, Samarkand 32: Porto leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Porto and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Porto
Best match
59match

Wins on nightlife and beaches 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.

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
PortoSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortoSamarkand
Official languagePortugueseUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation104 m702 m
Main airportFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePortoSamarkand
City population273,476546,303
People per km²6,6065,058
Museums within 10 km4211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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