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 the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Samarkand or San Miguel de Allende?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’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 and San Miguel de Allende are level on 4.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, San Miguel de Allende 62: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, San Miguel de Allende 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand and San Miguel de Allende are level on 40.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, San Miguel de Allende 32: San Miguel de Allende leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, San Miguel de Allende 48: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, San Miguel de Allende 50: Samarkand leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Samarkand and San Miguel de Allende.

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 Miguel de Allende
Best match
48match

Wins on wellness 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
15 hdaylight a day

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandSan Miguel de Allende

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageUzbekSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+5UTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation702 m1,900 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandSan Miguel de Allende
City population546,30369,811
People per km²5,058-
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Samarkand or San Miguel de Allende 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.