VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights

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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Petra 5: Antigua Guatemala leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Petra 22: Antigua Guatemala leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Petra 85: Petra leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Petra 5: Antigua Guatemala leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala and Petra are level on 78.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Petra 30: Antigua Guatemala leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Petra 25: Antigua Guatemala leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Petra 25: Antigua Guatemala leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Petra 18: Antigua Guatemala leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Petra 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Petra 10: Antigua Guatemala leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Petra 28: Antigua Guatemala leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Petra.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
Best match
47match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaPetra

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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.

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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaPetra
Official languageSpanishArabic
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123911
Elevation1,582 m850 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaPetra
City population59,091-
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.