VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Samarkand or Taipei?

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

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

Choose Taipei for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Taipei leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, Taipei 68: Samarkand leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, Taipei 58: Taipei leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, Taipei 78: Taipei leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, Taipei 76: Taipei leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, Taipei 72: Taipei leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, Taipei 86: Taipei leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, Taipei 70: Taipei leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, Taipei 66: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, Taipei 55: Taipei leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, Taipei 80: Taipei leads by 48 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Samarkand and Taipei.

Your match

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

Samarkand
45match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Taipei
Best match
70match

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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandTaipei

Where the figures come from

Taipei 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). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandTaipei
Official languageUzbekTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+5UTC+8
Emergency number112110 or 112 or 119
Elevation702 m10 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandTaipei
City population546,3032,429,429
People per km²5,0588,938
Museums within 10 km1169
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 Taipei 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. 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.