VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Petra for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Barcelona 75, Petra 5: Barcelona leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Petra 22: Barcelona leads by 60 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Petra 85: Barcelona leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Petra 5: Barcelona leads by 77 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Petra 78: Petra leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Petra 30: Barcelona leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Petra 25: Barcelona leads by 51 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Petra 25: Barcelona leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Petra 18: Barcelona leads by 57 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Petra 45: Petra leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Petra 10: Barcelona leads by 60 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Petra 28: Barcelona leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Petra.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaPetra

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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaPetra
Official languageSpanishArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112911
Elevation9 m850 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaPetra
City population1,731,649-
People per km²17,094-
Museums within 10 km952
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.