VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Samarkand or Santa Fe?

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 Santa Fe for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’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, Santa Fe 5: Santa Fe leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, Santa Fe 66: Samarkand leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, Santa Fe 22: Santa Fe leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, Santa Fe 70: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, Santa Fe 40: Samarkand leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, Santa Fe 30: Samarkand leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Samarkand and Santa Fe.

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.

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts 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

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandSanta Fe

Where the figures come from

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandSanta Fe
Official languageUzbek-
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+5UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation702 m2,134 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandSanta Fe
City population546,30387,505
People per km²5,058645
Museums within 10 km1110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Samarkand or Santa Fe 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.