VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
The Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, Venice
VeniceThe Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; Venice by David Vives, Pexels License.

Samarkand or Venice?

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

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

Choose Venice for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Venice’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, Venice 56: Venice leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, Venice 60: Venice leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, Venice 94: Venice leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, Venice 27: Venice leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, Venice 45: Venice leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, Venice 86: Venice leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, Venice 45: Venice leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, Venice 68: Venice leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, Venice 57: Venice leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, Venice 20: Samarkand leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, Venice 62: Venice leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, Venice 40: Venice leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Samarkand and Venice.

Your match

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

Samarkand
45match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Venice
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Venice in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
61 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandVenice

Where the figures come from

Venice 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.

Venice's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Treviso / S. Angelo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Venezia / Tessera (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandVenice
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 m2 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre103 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandVenice
City population546,303250,369
People per km²5,058602
Museums within 10 km1152
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

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