VacationSelector
The Cathedral of Sant'Agata, Catania
CataniaThe Cathedral of Sant'Agata
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Catania by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Catania 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 Catania for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Catania’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. Catania 72, Petra 5: Catania leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Catania 77, Petra 22: Catania leads by 55 points.
Culture & sights. Catania 62, Petra 85: Petra leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Catania 60, Petra 5: Catania leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. Catania 83, Petra 78: Catania leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Catania 84, Petra 30: Catania leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Catania 50, Petra 25: Catania leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Catania 48, Petra 25: Catania leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Catania 42, Petra 18: Catania leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Catania 60, Petra 45: Catania leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Catania 55, Petra 10: Catania leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Catania 30, Petra 28: Catania leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Catania and Petra.

Your match

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

Catania
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and food and drink 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.

Catania in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °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
CataniaPetra

Where the figures come from

Catania's sunshine is measured 88 km from the centre, at Messina.

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. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Fontanarossa (5.2 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCataniaPetra
Official languageItalianArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m850 m
Main airportCatania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre96 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCataniaPetra
City population311,584-
People per km²1,704-
Museums within 10 km252
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Catania 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.