VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
Victoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter, Victoria Falls
Victoria FallsVictoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; Victoria Falls by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Samarkand or Victoria Falls?

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
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Victoria Falls for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria Falls’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, Victoria Falls 7: Victoria Falls leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, Victoria Falls 24: Samarkand leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, Victoria Falls 12: Samarkand leads by 72 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, Victoria Falls 8: Samarkand leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, Victoria Falls 94: Victoria Falls leads by 54 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, Victoria Falls 22: Samarkand leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, Victoria Falls 38: Victoria Falls leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, Victoria Falls 45: Samarkand leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, Victoria Falls 18: Samarkand leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, Victoria Falls 32: Samarkand leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, Victoria Falls 10: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, Victoria Falls 34: Victoria Falls leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Samarkand and Victoria Falls.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Victoria Falls
29match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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
15 hdaylight a day

Victoria Falls in July

26 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandVictoria Falls

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre). Victoria Falls: 1991-2020 normals, Livingstone (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandVictoria Falls
Official languageUzbekEnglish, Xhosa, Ndau, Venda, Chewa, Khoisan, Kalanga, Shona, Tonga, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Northern Ndebele, Nambya, Zimbabwe Sign Language, Barwe
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)Zimbabwe Gold (ZWG)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+5UTC+2
Emergency number112999
Elevation702 m961 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsVictoria Falls International Airport (VFA)18 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandVictoria Falls
City population546,30333,060
People per km²5,058-
Museums within 10 km112
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 Victoria Falls 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). 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.