VacationSelector
Banff Avenue below Cascade Mountain, Banff
BanffBanff Avenue below Cascade Mountain
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Banff by bryan pascual, Pexels License; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Banff 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 Banff for

  • families
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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. Banff 12, Petra 5: Banff leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Banff 32, Petra 22: Banff leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Banff 22, Petra 85: Petra leads by 63 points.
Nightlife. Banff 30, Petra 5: Banff leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Banff 98, Petra 78: Banff leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Banff 25, Petra 30: Petra leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Banff 60, Petra 25: Banff leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Banff 55, Petra 25: Banff leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Banff 28, Petra 18: Banff leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Banff 18, Petra 45: Petra leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Banff 32, Petra 10: Banff leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Banff 54, Petra 28: Banff leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Banff and Petra.

Your match

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

Banff
Best match
39match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Banff in July

23 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
16 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
BanffPetra

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. Banff: 1991-2020 normals, Banff (2 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBanffPetra
Official languageFrench, EnglishArabic
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,400 m850 m
Main airportCalgary International Airport (YYC)109 km from centre103 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBanffPetra
City population8,305-
People per km²1,730-
Museums within 10 km42
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

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