VacationSelector
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Positano 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 Positano for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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. Positano 77, Samarkand 4: Positano leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Positano 40, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Positano 22, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Positano 22, Samarkand 14: Positano leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Positano 80, Samarkand 40: Positano leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Positano 88, Samarkand 72: Positano leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Positano 28, Samarkand 30: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Positano 35, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Positano 45, Samarkand 42: Positano leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Positano 10, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 70 points.
Live music & performing arts. Positano 15, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Positano 45, Samarkand 32: Positano leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Positano and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Positano
42match

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

Samarkand
Best match
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.

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PositanoSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano 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.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePositanoSamarkand
Official languageItalianUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation142 m702 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePositanoSamarkand
City population3,729546,303
People per km²4295,058
Museums within 10 km1011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Positano 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.