VacationSelector
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Puerto Princesa 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 Princesa for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • 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. Puerto Princesa 58, Samarkand 4: Puerto Princesa leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Princesa 38, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Princesa 22, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Princesa 26, Samarkand 14: Puerto Princesa leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Princesa 80, Samarkand 40: Puerto Princesa leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Puerto Princesa 12, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 60 points.
Good for families. Puerto Princesa 45, Samarkand 30: Puerto Princesa leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Puerto Princesa 30, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Princesa 20, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Puerto Princesa 78, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Princesa 10, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Princesa 40, Samarkand 32: Puerto Princesa leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Princesa and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Puerto Princesa
38match

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

Samarkand
Best match
45match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Puerto Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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 PrincesaSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Puerto Princesa has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PrincesaSamarkand
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishUzbek
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation98 m702 m
Main airportPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PrincesaSamarkand
City population316,384546,303
People per km²1335,058
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 Princesa or Samarkand somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.