VacationSelector
Haedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea, Busan
BusanHaedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Busan by Andrea De Santis, Pexels License; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Busan 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 Busan for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Busan 68, Petra 5: Busan leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Busan 72, Petra 22: Busan leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. Busan 52, Petra 85: Petra leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Busan 60, Petra 5: Busan leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. Busan 74, Petra 78: Petra leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Busan 74, Petra 30: Busan leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Busan 70, Petra 25: Busan leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Busan 68, Petra 25: Busan leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Busan 60, Petra 18: Busan leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Busan 56, Petra 45: Busan leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Busan 42, Petra 10: Busan leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Busan 78, Petra 28: Busan leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Busan and Petra.

Your match

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

Busan
Best match
65match

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.

Busan in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
352 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BusanPetra

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. Busan: 1991-2020 normals, Pusan (9.7 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBusanPetra
Official languageKorean, Korean Sign LanguageArabic
CurrencyWon (KRW)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCF220 V, 60 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 119, fire 119911
Elevation30 m850 m
Main airportGimhae International Airport (PUS)12 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBusanPetra
City population3,453,198-
People per km²4,486-
Museums within 10 km72
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

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