VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Acapulco or Petra?

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 Acapulco for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Petra’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. Acapulco 80, Petra 5: Acapulco leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Petra 22: Acapulco leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Petra 85: Petra leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Petra 5: Acapulco leads by 59 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Petra 78: Petra leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Petra 30: Petra leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Petra 25: Acapulco leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Petra 25: Acapulco leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Petra 18: Acapulco leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Petra 45: Acapulco leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Petra 10: Acapulco leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Petra 28: Acapulco leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Petra.

Your match

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

Acapulco
Best match
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoPetra

Where the figures come from

Petra's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Ma'An.

Petra's station stands 219 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Petra 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. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoPetra
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaArabic
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+3
Emergency number911911
Elevation18 m850 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoPetra
City population658,609-
People per km²350-
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Petra 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.