VacationSelector
Punta del Este
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Punta del Este 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 Punta del Este for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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. Punta del Este 72, Samarkand 4: Punta del Este leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Punta del Este 45, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Punta del Este 22, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Punta del Este 60, Samarkand 14: Punta del Este leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta del Este 55, Samarkand 40: Punta del Este leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Punta del Este 45, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Punta del Este 55, Samarkand 30: Punta del Este leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Punta del Este 35, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Punta del Este and Samarkand are level on 42.
Affordability. Punta del Este 20, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta del Este 22, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta del Este and Samarkand are level on 32.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Punta del Este and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Punta del Este
42match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Samarkand
Best match
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.

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Punta del EsteSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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. Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePunta del EsteSamarkand
Official language-Uzbek
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation11 m702 m
Main airportCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePunta del EsteSamarkand
City population9,277546,303
People per km²4555,058
Museums within 10 km511
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Punta del Este 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.