VacationSelector
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Puerto Plata 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 Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Plata’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. Puerto Plata 80, Samarkand 4: Puerto Plata leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Plata 40, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Plata 35, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Plata 38, Samarkand 14: Puerto Plata leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Plata 68, Samarkand 40: Puerto Plata leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Puerto Plata 48, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Puerto Plata 57, Samarkand 30: Puerto Plata leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Puerto Plata 30, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Plata 30, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Puerto Plata 64, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Plata 18, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Plata 35, Samarkand 32: Puerto Plata leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Plata and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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.

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto PlataSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Puerto Plata 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PlataSamarkand
Official languageSpanishUzbek
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation34 m702 m
Main airportGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PlataSamarkand
City population-546,303
People per km²-5,058
Museums within 10 km111
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 Puerto Plata 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). 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.