VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Samarkand or York?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose York for

  • families
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: York leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, York 42: Samarkand leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, York 70: Samarkand leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, York 36: York leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, York 62: York leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, York 80: York leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, York 60: York leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Samarkand 58, York 72: York leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, York 46: York leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, York 38: Samarkand leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, York 38: York leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, York 34: York leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Samarkand and York.

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.

York
Best match
49match

Wins on families 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
15 hdaylight a day

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandYork
Official languageUzbekEnglish
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+5UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation702 m25 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-8 days

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandYork
City population546,303208,400
People per km²5,058766
Museums within 10 km1124
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Samarkand or York 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.