VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Samarkand or Wellington?

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
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, Wellington 44: Samarkand leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, Wellington 40: Samarkand leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand and Wellington are level on 42.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, Wellington 33: Samarkand leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, Wellington 30: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Samarkand
45match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandWellington
Official languageUzbekEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+5UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation702 m0 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandWellington
City population546,303216,200
People per km²5,058487
Museums within 10 km1112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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