VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Samarkand or Siena?

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
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Siena for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Siena’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, Siena 14: Siena leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, Siena 62: Siena leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, Siena 78: Samarkand leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, Siena 27: Siena leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, Siena 65: Siena leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, Siena 94: Siena leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, Siena 38: Siena leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, Siena 60: Siena leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, Siena 35: Samarkand leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, Siena 42: Samarkand leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, Siena 36: Siena leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, Siena 55: Siena leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Samarkand and Siena.

Your match

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

Samarkand
45match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Siena
Best match
51match

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

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandSiena

Where the figures come from

Siena's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Arezzo.

Siena 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). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandSiena
Official languageUzbekItalian
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation702 m322 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandSiena
City population546,30352,812
People per km²5,058446
Museums within 10 km1130
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Samarkand or Siena 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.