VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Samarkand or San Juan?

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 Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Juan’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. Samarkand 4, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, San Juan 66: San Juan leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, San Juan 64: Samarkand leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, San Juan 52: Samarkand leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, San Juan 38: Samarkand leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, San Juan 50: San Juan leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, San Juan 38: Samarkand leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, San Juan 55: San Juan leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, San Juan 40: San Juan leads by 8 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Samarkand and San Juan.

Your match

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

Samarkand
45match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Juan
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

San Juan in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandSan Juan
Official languageUzbekSpanish, English
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+5UTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation702 m3 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-21 days

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandSan Juan
City population546,303342,259
People per km²5,0582,847
Museums within 10 km1118
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Samarkand or San Juan 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.