VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Samarkand or Sarasota?

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 Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, Sarasota 44: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, Sarasota 45: Samarkand leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, Sarasota 28: Sarasota leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, Sarasota 55: Sarasota leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, Sarasota 50: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, Sarasota 28: Samarkand leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, Sarasota 40: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, Sarasota 30: Samarkand leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Samarkand and Sarasota.

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.

Sarasota
Best match
48match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandSarasota

Where the figures come from

Sarasota 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.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandSarasota
Official languageUzbek-
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation702 m7 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandSarasota
City population546,30354,842
People per km²5,058840
Museums within 10 km113
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

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