VacationSelector
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Riga 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 Riga for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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. Riga 40, Samarkand 4: Riga leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Riga 52, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Riga 66, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Riga 52, Samarkand 14: Riga leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Riga 55, Samarkand 40: Riga leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Riga 60, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Riga 50, Samarkand 30: Riga leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Riga 68, Samarkand 58: Riga leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Riga 45, Samarkand 42: Riga leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Riga 62, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Riga 65, Samarkand 24: Riga leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Riga 50, Samarkand 32: Riga leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Riga and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Riga
Best match
55match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Samarkand
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.

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
RigaSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRigaSamarkand
Official languageLatvianUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m702 m
Main airportRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureRigaSamarkand
City population588,911546,303
People per km²-5,058
Museums within 10 km1211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Riga 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.