VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Quito 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 Quito for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • 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. Quito 5, Samarkand 4: Quito leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Quito and Samarkand are level on 54.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Samarkand 14: Quito leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Samarkand 40: Quito leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Samarkand 30: Quito leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Samarkand 24: Quito leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Samarkand 32: Quito leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Quito
Best match
50match

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

Samarkand
45match

Wins on day trips 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.

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoSamarkand
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaUzbek
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,850 m702 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoSamarkand
City population1,763,275546,303
People per km²4,7355,058
Museums within 10 km1611
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

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