VacationSelector
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Samarkand or Zadar?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Zadar’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, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Samarkand 54, Zadar 45: Samarkand leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Samarkand 84, Zadar 55: Samarkand leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Samarkand 14, Zadar 38: Zadar leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Samarkand 40, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Samarkand 72, Zadar 70: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Samarkand 30, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Samarkand and Zadar are level on 58.
Shopping & style. Samarkand 42, Zadar 27: Samarkand leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Samarkand 80, Zadar 52: Samarkand leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Samarkand 24, Zadar 28: Zadar leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Samarkand 32, Zadar 35: Zadar leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Zadar
Best match
51match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

Zadar in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
SamarkandZadar

Where the figures come from

Zadar 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). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSamarkandZadar
Official languageUzbekCroatian
CurrencyUzbekistan Sum (UZS)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFI220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation702 m5 m
Main airportSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSamarkandZadar
City population546,30370,779
People per km²5,058-
Museums within 10 km111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Zadar 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.