VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
Bell Rock outside Sedona, Sedona
SedonaBell Rock outside Sedona

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

Samarkand or Sedona?

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

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose Sedona for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Sedona’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, Sedona 16: Sedona leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, Sedona 33: Samarkand leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, Sedona 20: Samarkand leads by 64 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, Sedona 8: Samarkand leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, Sedona 93: Sedona leads by 53 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, Sedona 55: Samarkand leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, Sedona 42: Sedona leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, Sedona 22: Samarkand leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, Sedona 34: Samarkand leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, Sedona 18: Samarkand leads by 62 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, Sedona 13: Samarkand leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, Sedona 82: Sedona leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Samarkand and Sedona.

Your match

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

Samarkand
Best match
45match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Sedona
36match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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

Sedona in July

34 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
51 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
SamarkandSedona

Where the figures come from

Sedona's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Sedona 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). Sedona: 2009-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sedona / West Sedona (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandSedona
Official languageUzbek-
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+5UTC-7
Emergency number112911
Elevation702 m1,319 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)160 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandSedona
City population546,3039,684
People per km²5,058195
Museums within 10 km110
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 Sedona 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.